János Mátyás Kovács (1950, Budapest) graduated at the Karl Marx University of Economics, Budapest in 1973. He defended his doctoral dissertation on "The Market Economy of the NEP" at the same university in 1975. In 1973, he became a research fellow at the Institute of Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. Since 1984, he has taught history of economic thought and political economy of communism and the post-communist transformation at various departments of Eötvös Loránd University and Karl Marx University of Economics (today: Corvinus University) in Budapest. In 1987, Kovacs moved to Vienna, and has worked as a Permanent Fellow at the IWM since 1991, while remaining an external research fellow of the Institute of Economics. Since 2009, he has taught history of economic thought at the Dapartment of Economics of Eötvös Loránd University again. He serves as an editor of Transit (Vienna) and 2000 (Budapest).

His fields of research include the history of economic thought in Eastern Europe, history of communist economies, the political economy of new capitalism in Eastern Europe, economic cultures after communism, and institutional economics.

Selected Publications

Capitalism from Outside? Economic Cultures in Eastern Europe After 1989 (co-editor Violetta Zentai), Budapest: CEU Press (forthcoming)

Importing Spiritual Capital. East-West Encounters and Capitalist Cultures in Eastern Europe after 1989, in: Peter Berger and Gordon Redding (eds), The Hidden Form of Capital, Anthem Press, London 2010

Various Varieties . On the Classification of New Capitalisms in Eastern Europe, in: Soeffner, Hans-Georg (ed.) (2010): Unsichere Zeiten. Herausforderungen gesellschaftlicher Transformationen,Wiesbaden: VS Verlag

“Ex Occidente Flux. A Debate on the Usefulness of Macroeconomics and the Responsibility of Economics, Közgazdasági Szemle 2009/10 (in Hungarian)

Accomplices without Perpetrators. What Do Economists Have to Do with Transitional Justice in Hungary?, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 2008/2-3

Narcissism of Small Differences. Looking Back on “Reform Economics” in Hungary, in: Christoph Boyer (Hg.), Zur Physiognomie sozialistischer Wirtschaftsreformen, Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann, 2007

Little America . Eastern European Economic Cultures in the EU, in: Ivan Krastev and Alan McPherson (eds), The Anti-American Century, CEU Press, Budapest 2007

Which Past Matters? Culture and Economic Development in Eastern Europe after 1989, in: Lawrence E. Harrison and Peter Berger (eds.), Developing Cultures, London: Routledge, 2006

Between Resentment and Indifference. Narratives of Solidarity in the Enlarging Union. In: Krzysztof Michalski (ed), What Holds Europe Together? CEU Press, Budapest 2006

Small Transformations. The Politics of Welfare Reform - East and West (ed.), Münster: LIT Verlag, 2003

Business as (Un)usual. Notes on the Westernization of Economic Sciences in Eastern Europe. In: Max Kaase and Vera Sparschuh (eds): Three Social Science Disciplines in Central and Eastern Europe, GESIS/ Social Science Information Centre (IZ), Bonn/Berlin and Collegium Budapest, Budapest, 2002

(ed): A zárva várt Nyugat. Kulturális globalizáció Magyarországon. (The West as a Guest. Cultural Globalization in Hungary.) Budapest, 2002 (in Hungarian)

Approaching the EU And Reaching the US? Transforming Welfare Regimes in East-Central Europe: Rival Narratives, West European Politics April 2002

Rival Temptations – Passive Resistance. Cultural Globalization in Hungary, in: Peter Berger & Samuel Huntington (eds), Many Globalizations, Oxford University Press, 2002

Westerweiterung? Zur Metamorphose des Traums von Mitteleuropa, Transit, 2001/21

Praising the Hybrids. Notes on Economic Thought Ten Years After, East European Politics and Societies 1999/2

Uncertain Ghosts. Populists and Urbans in Postcommunist Hungary, in: Peter Berger (ed), Limits of Social Cohesion, Westview Press 1998

The Story of the Prodigal Son. On the Value of Eastern European Economic Thought (and of Its History), Közgazdasági Szemle 1997/4 (in Hungarian)

Legacy, Imitation, Invention. Economic Thought in Hungary after 1989, Közgazdasági Szemle 1996/4 (in Hungarian)

Transition to Capitalism? The Communist Legacy in Eastern Europe (ed.), New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 1994.

Which Institutionalism? Searching for Paradigms of Transformation in Eastern European Economic Thought, in: Hans-Jürgen Wagener (ed): The Political Economy of Transformation, Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1993

Reform and Transformation. Eastern European Economics on the Threshold of Change (co-editor Marton Tardos), London: Routledge, 1992

J.M. Kovács (ed), Rediscovery of Liberalism in Eastern Europe, East European Politics and Societies Winter 1991