A Unique Path to Monopoly: The Case of the Hungarian Insurance Sector, 1945–1952
Gyula Horváth
Eötvös Loránd University, Corvinus University of Budapest
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Hungarian Historical Review Volume 13 Issue 4 (2024): 575-595 DOI 10.38145/2024.4.575
This paper presents the nationalization and monopolization of the private insurance industry in Hungary after World War II. In all the socialist countries save one private insurance was prohibited. In the insurance sector, only one (or technically sometimes two) state-owned insurance companies handled the insurance business with an essentially monopolistic position after the process of nationalization had ended. This uniformity, however, masks the fact that these countries took differing paths towards this end. This was particularly true of the events in Hungary. This article suggests possible explanations for these differences.
Keywords: private insurance industry, nationalization, Central and Eastern Europe, post-World War II, monopoly