Institutional Entrepreneurship and the Mission Creep of the National Bank of Hungary

Sebők, Miklós (2018) Institutional Entrepreneurship and the Mission Creep of the National Bank of Hungary. In: Institutional Entrepreneurship and Policy Change : Theoretical and Empirical Explorations. Ed. by Caner Bakir, Darryl S. L. Jarvis. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 243-278. ISBN 978-3-319-70350-3

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Abstract

This chapter applies the theoretical framework of institutional entrepre- neurship (Campbell, 2004; Hardy & Maguire, 2008) to this interesting case of institutional and policy change. Its research question concerns the causes and conditions of the aforementioned transformation in Hungarian central banking. We examine this question by means of a qualitative case study (Creswell, 2012). Our analysis of how and why the mission creep of the central bank developed in such a short period of time relies on the process tracing method (Collier, 2011), document analysis and elite inter- views with former and current central bank governors and vice-governors. The results show that the institutional transformation between 2013 and 2015 was primarily caused by the appointment of Matolcsy and his subsequent institutional entrepreneurship. The political backing of the Fidesz Party and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also served a pivotal role both as a precondition and an intervening factor, respectively, in the pro- cess. In what follows, we first provide a review of the relevant literature on the role of institutional entrepreneurship in institutional change and its relevance for the study of central banking. Second, we formulate our hypothesis and present our research design. Third, based on interviews and document analysis, we analyse the mission creep of the Hungarian central bank and the role of institutional entrepreneurship in ushering in these changes. The final section concludes.

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