AKOS RONA-TAS
Department of Sociology
University of California, San Diego
488 Social Sciences Building
9500 Gilman Dr.
La Jolla, CA 92093-0533
858-534-4699
Email : [email protected]
Website : https://sociology.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/faculty%20members/akos-rona-tas.html
Personal website : http://www.akosronatas.com/
Academic Appointments
2014 – Full Professor of Sociology, UC, San Diego
2018 – Founding Faculty of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, UC San Diego
2018 – Member of the Institute for Practical Ethics, UC San Diego
2019 – Co-director of the International Institute, UC San Diego
2008 – Affiliated Faculty, Cognitive Science Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program, UC San Diego
Past Academic Appointments
2018 Scholar in Residence, Max Planck Institute for the Research on Societies, Cologne, Germany
2014 – 2017 Chair, Department of Sociology, UC San Diego
2008 – 2016 Research Associate, INRA, Paris, France
1997 – 2014 Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego
1992 – 2001 Non-resident Research Fellow at the Social Science Research Institute, Budapest
1991 Visiting Faculty at the Juan March Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. Madrid, Spain,
1990 – 1991 Lecturer at the Budapest School of Economics
1990 – 1997 Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego
1989 – 1990 Acting Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego
1986 – 1988 Research Assistant and Data Analyst/Statistician at the Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Fields
Economic Sociology, Inequality, Political Sociology, Social Cognition, Comparative Historical Sociology, Risk and Uncertainty, Social Statistics, Quantitative and Survey Methodology
Education
Ph.D. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1990)
Dissertation: The Second Economy in Hungary: The Social Origins of the End Of State Socialism
Committee: Michael Kennedy (Chair), Martin K. Whyte, Albert Simkus, Zvi Gitelman, Andre Modigliani
B.A. equivalent Loránd Eötvös University, Budapest (1981)
Publications:
Books
Rona-Tas, Akos. The Great Surprise of the Small Transformation: The Demise of Communism and the Rise of the Private Sector in Hungary. 1997. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Rona-Tas, Akos, Guseva, Alya. 2014. Plastic Money. Constructing Markets for Credit Cards in Eight Postcommunist Societies. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
--- Honorable Mention for the George R. Terry Book Award of the Academy of Management
Edited Volumes
Rona-Tas, Akos and György Lengyel (eds.). 1997a. “Entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe (I),” Special Issue of the International Journal of Sociology, Fall 1997.
Rona-Tas, Akos and György Lengyel (eds.). 1997b. “Entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe (II),” Winter. Special Issue of the International Journal of Sociology
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1991. “The Selected and the Elected: The Making of the New Parliamentary Elite in Hungary,” East European Politics and Societies, vol 5, no. 3.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1992. “A társadalomtudományi mérés természetéröl,” Replika, vol. 2, no. 3. [Translated title: "The Nature of Measurement in the Social Sciences"]
Kolosi, Tamas and Akos Rona-Tas. 1992. “Az utolsókból lesznek az elsök? A rendszerváltás társadalmi hatásai Magyarországon,” Szociológiai Szemle, vol. 2, 1992. (24 pages) Also published in Sociologicky Casopis, vol 30. [Translated title: “The Last Shall Be First? The social consequences of the transition in Hungary”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1994. “The First Shall Be Last?Entrepreneurship and Communist Cadres in the Transition from Socialism,” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 100, no. 1.
Jozsef Borocz and Akos Rona-Tas. 1995. “Small Leap Forward:Emergence of New Economic Elites,” Theory and Society, 24:5, pp. 751-781.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1997. “The Czech Third Wave: Privatization and the New Role of the State in the Czech Republic” Problems of Post-Communism, Nov/Dec 1997.
Rona-Tas, Akos and Borocz, J. 1997. “Folyamatosság és változás az államszocializmus utáni bolgár, cseh, lengyel és magyar üzleti elitben,” in Szociologiai Szemle [Translated title: Continuity and Change in the Post-Communist Bulgarian, Czech, Polish and Hungarian Business Elites]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1998. “Path-Dependence and Capital Theory:Sociology of the Post- Communist Economic Transformation.” East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 12 No. 1.
Rona-Tas, Akos, J. Buncak, and V. Harmadyova. 1999. “Post-Communist Transformation and the New Elite in Slovakia.” Sociologia, vol 31, number 3.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2000. “Egyenlőtlenség, igazságosság és a poszt-kommunista átmenet” 2000, vol. 12, no. 4. [Translated title: “Inequalities, justice, and the post-communist transition”]
Guseva, Alya and Akos Rona-Tas. 2001: “Uncertainty, Risk and Trust: Russian and American Credit Card Markets Compared.” American Sociological Review, v66, n5.
Rona-Tas, Akos and Alya Guseva, 2001. “The Privileges of Past Communist Party Membership in Russia and Endogenous Switching Regression.” Social Science Research, 30(4).
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2003. “Bizonytalanság és a hitelkártyák piaca. Tanulságok az Egyesült Államokból és Kelet Európából”. (“Uncertainty and the market for credit cards.Lessons from the United States and Eastern Europe.”) Banking Review (Bankszemle), 2(5), 2003.
Rona-Tas, A and M. Sagi. 2005. “Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment in Transition Economies.” Research in the Sociology of Work, V105. pp.279-310
Rona-Tas, Akos and Nadav Gabay. 2007. “The Invisible Science of the Invisible Hand: The Public Presence ofEconomic Sociology in the USA.” Socio-Economic Review, V5(N2) pp. 334-355
Blanchemanche, Sandrine, Buche, Patrick, Dibie-Barthélemy, Juliette, Feinblatt-Mélèze, Eve, Ibanescu, Liliana, Rona-Tas, Akos. 2009. “Ontology Building: An Application in Food Risk Analysis.” Proceedings of 8th International Conference on Terminology and Artificial Intelligence, Toulouse (France), TIA
Róna-Tas, Ákos and Hiß, Stefanie. 2010. “Das Kreditrating von Verbrauchern und Unternehmen und die Subprime-Krise in den USA mit Lehren für Deutschland.“ Informatik-Spektrum 33(3): 241-261
Rona-Tas, Akos and Hiss, Stefanie. 2010. “The Role of Ratings in the Subprime Mortgage Crisis: The Art of Corporate and the Science of Consumer Credit Rating.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 30A: 115-155.
Hiß, Stefanie, and Rona-Tas, Akos 2011. “Wie entstehen Preise? Zur Lösung des Bewertungsproblems auf dem Markt für Ratingurteile strukturierter Finanzprodukte. ” Berliner Journal für Soziologie 21(4): 469-494
Rona-Tas, Akos, Alya Guseva. 2013. “Information and Consumer Credit in Central and Eastern Europe.” Journal of Comparative Economics, 41/2:420-435
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2017. "The off-label use of consumer credit ratings." Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung: 52-76.
Rona-Tas, Akos, and Alya Guseva. 2018. "Consumer credit in comparative perspective." Annual Review of Sociology 44: 55-75.
Rona-Tas, Akos, Antoine Cornuéjols, Sandrine Blanchemanche, Antonin Duroy, and Christine Martin. 2019. "Enlisting supervised machine learning in mapping scientific uncertainty expressed in food risk analysis." Sociological Methods & Research 48.3: 608-641.
Rona-Tas, Akos. Forthcoming. “Predicting the Future: Art and Algorithms.” Socio-Economic Review
Book Chapters (Peer-reviewed)
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1995. “The Second Economy as a Subversive Force: The Erosion of Party Power in Hungary,” Chapter 3 in The Waning of the Communist State: Economic Origins of Political Decline in China and Hungary, Andrew G. Walder, (ed.), Berkeley: University of California Press.
Rona-Tas, Akos and József Böröcz. 1995. “Formowanie sie nowej elity ekonomicznej,” in Elity w Polsce, w Rosji I na Wegrzech. Wymiana czy reprodukcja? Ivan Szelenyi, Don Treiman, Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski (eds.), Warszawa: Instytut Studiow Politycznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1996. “Post-Communist Transition and the Absent Middle Class in East-Central Europe,” in Identities in Transition: Eastern Europe and Russia after the Collapse of Communism, Victoria E. Bonnell (ed.), Berkeley:International and Area Studies.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1997. “Social Engineering and Historical Legacies: Privatization and the Business Elite in Hungary and the Czech Republic,” in Liberalization and Leninist Legacies: Comparative Perspectives on Democratic Transitions, Beverly Crawford /Arend Lijphard (eds.), Berkeley: International and Area Studies
Rona-Tas, Akos and Jozsef Borocz. 2000. “Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary andPoland: Presocialist and Socialist Legacies among Business Elites”, in J. Higley and G. Lengyel eds. Elites after State Socialism.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2001. “Legacies, Institutions and Markets. Small Entrepreneurship in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic”, in J. Beyer, J. Wielgohs, and H. Wiesnthal (eds.) Successful Transitions. Political Factors of Socio-Economic Progress in Post-Socialist Countries.Nomos Verlag Baden-Baden.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2002. “The Worm and the Caterpillar: The Small Private Sector in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia.” in V. Bonnell and T. Gold (eds.) The New Entrepreneurs of Europe and Asia: Patterns of Business Development in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China.
Rona -Tas, Akos. 2007. “The Three Modalities of Rationality and Their Contradictions in Post-Communist Consumer Credit Markets.” In Jens Beckert and Rainer Diaz-Bone eds.The Social Structure of Markets, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt/New York
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2009. “Consumer Credit and Society in Transition Countries.” Chapter 6. In Victor Perez Diaz ed. Markets and Civil Society, Berghan Books, New York.
Rona-Tas, Akos, Hiss, Stefanie. 2011. “Forecasting as Valuation: The Role of Ratings and Predictions in the Subprime Mortgage Crisis in the US.” Pp. 223-246 in Beckert, Jens and Aspers, Patrik eds. The Worth of Goods. Valuation and Pricing in the Economy. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Dhanjal, Charanpal, Blanchemanche, Sandrine, Clémençon, Stephan, Rona-Tas, Akos, Rossi, Fabrice. 2012. “Dissemination of Heath Information within Social Networks.”Pp.15-46 in Balazs Vedres Balazs and Marco Rossi (eds.), Networks in Social Problems, Oxford University Press.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2012. “The Rise of Consumer Credit in the Postcommunist Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.” Pp. 149-175 in Bandelj, Nina and Solinger, Dorothy J. (eds.) Socialism Vanquished, Socialism Challenged. Eastern Europe and China, 1989-2009. Oxford, Oxford University Press
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2015. “The Role of Credit Bureaus in Globalised Economies”, Chapter 11. In H.W. Micklitz and I. Domurath eds. Consumer Debt and Social Exclusion in Europe, Farnham; Burlington: Ashgate,
Rona-Tas, Akos and Alya Guseva. 2017. “Plastic Money Tattles: The New Sociability of Money”. Chapter 12 in Nina Bandelj, Frederick Wherry and Viviana Zelizer, Money Talks, Princeton: Princeton University Press
Alya Guseva and Akos Rona-Tas. Forthcoming. “Consumer Credit Surveillance,” Chapter 17 in The Oxford Handbook of Consumption.
Invited Articles
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1990. “Empirikus rétegzödésvizsgálat és spekulatív ideológiakritika,” Replika, Budapest, September. [Translated title: "Empirical Stratification Research and Speculative Ideological Deconstruction"].
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1991. “A racionális döntések elmélete a szociológiában,” Replika, vol. 4. [Translated title: "Rational Choice Theory in Sociology"]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2002. “Economic Sociology in Hungary” in the European Newsletter for Economic Sociology. Electronic Publication, URL: http://www.siswo.uva.nl/ES/esfeb02.pdf February.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2016. “Brexit: The Conflict of Globalization and Democracy,” Socio-Economic Review
Research reports
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1996. “The Czech New Wave: The Third Wave of Privatization and the Role of the State in the Czech Republic,” for National Council for Soviet and East European Research Grant.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1996. “Institutional Change and Managerial Mobility in Hungary and the Czech Republic,” for National Council for Soviet and East European Research Grant.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1997. “Persistence of Networks in the Post-Communist Transformation in Eastern Europe,” for Conference on Cooperation Under Difficult Conditions, UCSD, October.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2007. “Consumer Registries in the United States”. Report Prepared for the Hungarian Office of Economic Competition and the Hungarian National Bank
Rona-Tas, Akos and Stefanie Hiss. 2010. “Consumer and Corporate Credit Ratings and the Subprime Crisis in the U.S. with Some Lessons for Germany”.Report for the German Central Consumer Credit bureau, SCHUFA
Book reviews
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1993. “Autopsies of Communism” in Contemporary Sociology, review of Social Currents in Eastern Europe by Sabrina R amet and The Re-emergence of Civil Society by Zbigniew Rau in Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, vol. 22, no. 1, January.
Rona-Tas, Akos.1993. Review of Hungary: The Rise and Fall of Feasible Socialism by Nigel Swain, in The Slavic Review, vol. 52, no. 3, Fall.
Rona-Tas, Akos. Review of The Radiant Past: Ideology and Reality in Hungary's Road to Capitalism by Michael Burawoy and Janos Lukacs in American Journal of Sociology, vol. 99, no. 3, November 1993.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1995. Review of Changing Political Economics —Privatization in Post-Communist and Reforming Communist States, Vedat Milor (ed.), Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, vol. 24, no. 4, July.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1997. Review of Envisioning Eastern Europe: Post-communist Cultural Studies by Michael D. Kennedy in Social Forces, December.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1997. Review of Restructuring Networks in Post-Socialism: Legacies, Linkages, and Localities, Gernot Grabher and David Stark (eds.) in American Journal of Sociology.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1998. “Varieties of Transition: Emerging Economies,” in Contemporary Sociology; review of The Rise and Fall of State Socialism; Industrial Society and the State, by David Lane in Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, vol. 27, no. 1, January.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 202. Review of Marketing democracy: Changing opinion about inequality and politics in East Central Europe, by D.S. Mason, J.R. Kluegel, L. Khakulina, P. Mateju, A. Orkeny, A. Stoyanov, B. Wegener, in Contemporary Sociology – A Journal of Reviews, v.31, n.4, July.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2003. Review of Embedded Politics: Industrial Networks and Institutional Change in Postcommunism by Gerald A. McDermott, in Slavic Review, 62:4.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2006. Review of A New Capitalist Order: Privatization and Ideology in Russia and Eastern Europe by Hillary Appel, Slavic Review, (65:2) pp. 352-353
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2009. Review of Divide and Pacify: Strategic Social Policies and Political Protests Post-Communist Democracies, by Pieter Vanhuysse, in The American Journal of Sociology (114:5)
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2009. Review of Wolfgang Streeck, Re-Forming Capitalism: Institutional Change in the German Political Economy. Economic Sociology, The European Electronic Newsletter, 10/3:35-37.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2011. “The Uses of Uncertainty. Review Symposium”. Review of David Stark, The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life. Socio-Economic Review9:597-601
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2016. Review of Svetlana Stephenson, Gangs of Russia: From the Streets to the Corridors of Power, Contemporary Sociology, vol. 45, 6: pp. 796-798.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2017. “The Importance of Thinking Forward”, review of Jens Beckert, Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics, Socio-Economic Review
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2019. Review of Sheldon Ekland-Olson and Jack P. Gibbs Science and Sociology: Predictive Power Is the Name of the Game, Contemporary Sociology, vol. 48, 4
Other publications
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1982. “Motor City: A Sociography of Detroit,” Valóság, Budapest, November.
Rona-Tas, Akos and Gabor M. Hanak. 1990. “Elektronikus vita a kisebbségek jogairól,” Valóság, Budapest, October. [Translated title: "Electronic Debate on Minority Rights"]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1991. “Michel Foucault:Ki egy szerző?” Pompeji, Szeged, vol. 3. [Translated title: “Michel Foucault: Who is an Author?”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1992. “Nemzedékek és pártok,” FIDESZ a Magyar Politikaban - 1988-1991, Andras Bozoki (ed.), Budapest. [Translated title: "Generations and Parties"]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2000. “Gazdasagi elitek es atmenet”, in Élet és Irodalom, vol.18, no 4.[Translated title: “Economic elites and the transition”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2000. “Vallás, demokrácia és kugli” in Élet és Irodalom, vol.40, no.3. [translated title: “Religion, democracy, and bowling”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2001. “Az Alkotmánybiróság által választott államelnök” Élet és Irodalom, vol.45, no.3 [translated title: “President elected by the Supreme Court”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2003. “Demokrácia Kaliforniában” Élet és Irodalom, vol.47, no.46 [translated title: “Democracy in California”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2004. “A liberális demokrácia hanyatlása Amerikában” Élet és Irodalom, vol.48, no.41 [translated title: “The decline of liberal democracy in the United States”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2005. “Katrina, nyomor, Bush” Élet és Irodalom, vol.49, no.36 [translated title: “Katrina, poverty, Bush”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2005. “A multikulturalitás határa és csavarjai” Élet és Irodalom, vol.49, no.47 [translated title: “The limits and twists of multiculturalism”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2006. “Nemzetállami frusztráltság” Heti világgazdaság, November 8 [translated title: “The frustrations of nation states”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2008. “Éljen Barack!” Élet és Irodalom, vol.52, no.45 [translated title: “Long live Barack!”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2012. “A nemzetállamok térvesztése.” Élet és Irodalom, vol.56, no.5 [translated title: “Nation states losing ground”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2014. “A levélszavazatok rejtélye.” Élet és Irodalom, vol.58, no.16 [translated title: “The mystery of mail votes”]
Rona-Tas, Akos and David S. FitzGerald. 2015. “Walls are not the solution”, CNN Blog, September 29, http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/29/opinions/fitzgerald-walls-not-answer-immigration/index.html
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2015. “Hungary’s Response to the Refugee Crisis: An Orchestrated Panic”, Transit Online, 10/02, http://www.iwm.at/transit/transit-online/hungarys-response-refugee-crisis-orchestrated-panic/
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2015. “Dublin 3 Must Go and We Must Let Refugees Fly”, Visegrad Insight September 10, http://visegradinsight.eu/dublin-3-must-go-and-we-must-let-refugees-fly/
Databases and Software
HolyRisk Database. http://www6.inra.fr/holyrisk
Survey Analysis through Visual Exploration (SuAVE)
Recent External Grants
2001– 2003 Obstacles in the Development of Medium Sized Companies in Hungary ($28,000)
2003 Co-PI, European Union Grant, European Union, ($10,800)
2003– 2006 PI, Rational Calculation and Trust: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Emerging Credit Card Markets in Socialist, Post-Socialist and Developing Countries, National Science Foundation ($185,000)
2003 – 2006 Co-PI, Rational Calculation and Trust: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Emerging Credit Card Markets in Socialist, Post-Socialist and Developing Countries, National Science Foundation/Hungarian National Science and Research Foundation Collaborative Grant ($10,000)
2006 Co-PI, Rational Calculation and Trust: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Emerging Credit Card Markets in Socialist, Post-Socialist and Developing Countries, Hungarian Bank Association ($5,000)
2008 – 2013 Co-PI with Sandrine Blanchemanche, Risk, Uncertainty and Trust in Food Safety Policy, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) (EU 440,000)
2009 PI, Paradigms of Risk Assessment and Uncertainty Policy Research, Worldwide Universities Network Foundation ($32,000)
2011 – 2015 External Consultant/Evaluator, National Science Foundation ($14,000)
2012 PI, Law and Finance Project, Institute for New Economic Thinking ($8,000)
2014 – 2016 Co-PI, EAGER: Data Visualization Project (SuAVE), National Science Foundation ($300,000)
Selected Recent Professional Activities
2018 – Chief Editor of Economic Sociology: The European Electronic Newsletter
2018 – 2019 President of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE)
2017 – Chair of the Advisory Committee at the American Sociological Association on the creation of the Sociology Action Network (SAN)
2016 – Member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Institute for Advanced Study of the Central European University
2016 Co-chair of the program committee of the Council of European Studies
2016 - Chair of the Viviana Zelizer Book Award Committee of the Economic Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association
2015 – 2018 Member of the Executive Committee and Treasurer of SASE
2009 – Founder and organizer of the Finance and Society Network at the Society for SASE
2008 Consultant to SCHUFA, the consumer credit registry of the German Banking Association
2007 Advisor to the Hungarian Government and National Bank on Consumer Registries
2006 – 2014 Member of the Supervisory Board of the Hungarian Anti-Poverty Network
2006 Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institute, Cologne
2005 Keynote Speaker at the Credit Card Workshop Organized by the People’s Bank of China, Shanghai, China
2004 Keynote Speaker at the Workshop of Credit Assessment and Bank Cards Organized by the Management Center of the Hanoi University of Technology in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam
Member of the Editorial Board of Szociologiai Szemle (Sociological Review)
Member of the Editorial Board of the Czech Sociological Review
Selected Invited Lectures
Renmin University, Beijing, 2019
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2019
Central European University, Budapest 2019
Tel Aviv University 2018
Bar Ilan University 2018
Princeton University 2018
University of Illinois 2017
UC Berkeley 2015
Brown University 2015
Boston University 2015
Harvard University 2014
Yale University 2014
Stockholm University 2014
Humboldt University Berlin 2014
Higher School of Economics 2013
European University Institute, Florence, Italy, 2013
Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, 2013
Hebrew University, Israel, 2012
University of Haifa, Israel, 2012, 2018
Max Planck Institute, 2012
Geary Institute, University College, Dublin, Ireland, 2012
Roland Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary, 2011
Indiana University, Bloomington, 2010
Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, 2010
University of Bamberg, Germany 2008
Harvard Business School 2006
Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania 2005
Max Planck Institute, Cologne, Germany 2005
European University Institute, Florence, Italy 2005
University of California, Irvine, 2004
Stanford University, 2004
University of Arizona, 2003
University of California, Los Angeles, 2003
Reviewer for
American Sociological Review
American Journal of Sociology
Social Forces
Social Science Research
Social Problems
Sociological Forum
Sociological Inquiry
Sociological Theory
Socio-Economic Review
Comparative Sociology
International Journal of Comparative Sociology
European Sociological Review
Journal of Environment and Development
Princeton University Press
Duke University Press
National Science Foundation
World Bank
Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Israeli Science Foundation
European Research Council
Swiss National Science Foundation
Max Planck Institute, Germany
Major Service UC San Diego campus and the UC System
2002-2006 Chair of the Committee on Admission
2002-2006 Member of the Academic Senate Council
2002-2006 Member of the Enrollment Planning Committee
2006 – 2007 Systemwide Board On Admission and Relationship with Schools (BOARS) UC San Diego Representative
2006 – 2007 Member of the Committee on Admission
2008 – 2009 Chair Review Committee of the EAP in Hungary
2009 – 2010 UC Commission on the Future, Member of the Working Group on Access and Affordability
2010 – 2011 Chancellor’s Review Committee
2010 – 2011 Academic Council’s Special Committee on a Plan for the University of California
2014—2017 Council of Chairs
2016 – 2017 Co-Chair of Dean’s Social Sciences Building Visioning Committee
2017 – 2018 Chair of the Committee to develop the program in Computational Social Science
Department of Sociology
University of California, San Diego
488 Social Sciences Building
9500 Gilman Dr.
La Jolla, CA 92093-0533
858-534-4699
Email : [email protected]
Website : https://sociology.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/faculty%20members/akos-rona-tas.html
Personal website : http://www.akosronatas.com/
Academic Appointments
2014 – Full Professor of Sociology, UC, San Diego
2018 – Founding Faculty of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, UC San Diego
2018 – Member of the Institute for Practical Ethics, UC San Diego
2019 – Co-director of the International Institute, UC San Diego
2008 – Affiliated Faculty, Cognitive Science Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program, UC San Diego
Past Academic Appointments
2018 Scholar in Residence, Max Planck Institute for the Research on Societies, Cologne, Germany
2014 – 2017 Chair, Department of Sociology, UC San Diego
2008 – 2016 Research Associate, INRA, Paris, France
1997 – 2014 Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego
1992 – 2001 Non-resident Research Fellow at the Social Science Research Institute, Budapest
1991 Visiting Faculty at the Juan March Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. Madrid, Spain,
1990 – 1991 Lecturer at the Budapest School of Economics
1990 – 1997 Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego
1989 – 1990 Acting Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego
1986 – 1988 Research Assistant and Data Analyst/Statistician at the Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Fields
Economic Sociology, Inequality, Political Sociology, Social Cognition, Comparative Historical Sociology, Risk and Uncertainty, Social Statistics, Quantitative and Survey Methodology
Education
Ph.D. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1990)
Dissertation: The Second Economy in Hungary: The Social Origins of the End Of State Socialism
Committee: Michael Kennedy (Chair), Martin K. Whyte, Albert Simkus, Zvi Gitelman, Andre Modigliani
B.A. equivalent Loránd Eötvös University, Budapest (1981)
Publications:
Books
Rona-Tas, Akos. The Great Surprise of the Small Transformation: The Demise of Communism and the Rise of the Private Sector in Hungary. 1997. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Rona-Tas, Akos, Guseva, Alya. 2014. Plastic Money. Constructing Markets for Credit Cards in Eight Postcommunist Societies. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
--- Honorable Mention for the George R. Terry Book Award of the Academy of Management
Edited Volumes
Rona-Tas, Akos and György Lengyel (eds.). 1997a. “Entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe (I),” Special Issue of the International Journal of Sociology, Fall 1997.
Rona-Tas, Akos and György Lengyel (eds.). 1997b. “Entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe (II),” Winter. Special Issue of the International Journal of Sociology
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1991. “The Selected and the Elected: The Making of the New Parliamentary Elite in Hungary,” East European Politics and Societies, vol 5, no. 3.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1992. “A társadalomtudományi mérés természetéröl,” Replika, vol. 2, no. 3. [Translated title: "The Nature of Measurement in the Social Sciences"]
Kolosi, Tamas and Akos Rona-Tas. 1992. “Az utolsókból lesznek az elsök? A rendszerváltás társadalmi hatásai Magyarországon,” Szociológiai Szemle, vol. 2, 1992. (24 pages) Also published in Sociologicky Casopis, vol 30. [Translated title: “The Last Shall Be First? The social consequences of the transition in Hungary”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1994. “The First Shall Be Last?Entrepreneurship and Communist Cadres in the Transition from Socialism,” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 100, no. 1.
Jozsef Borocz and Akos Rona-Tas. 1995. “Small Leap Forward:Emergence of New Economic Elites,” Theory and Society, 24:5, pp. 751-781.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1997. “The Czech Third Wave: Privatization and the New Role of the State in the Czech Republic” Problems of Post-Communism, Nov/Dec 1997.
Rona-Tas, Akos and Borocz, J. 1997. “Folyamatosság és változás az államszocializmus utáni bolgár, cseh, lengyel és magyar üzleti elitben,” in Szociologiai Szemle [Translated title: Continuity and Change in the Post-Communist Bulgarian, Czech, Polish and Hungarian Business Elites]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1998. “Path-Dependence and Capital Theory:Sociology of the Post- Communist Economic Transformation.” East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 12 No. 1.
Rona-Tas, Akos, J. Buncak, and V. Harmadyova. 1999. “Post-Communist Transformation and the New Elite in Slovakia.” Sociologia, vol 31, number 3.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2000. “Egyenlőtlenség, igazságosság és a poszt-kommunista átmenet” 2000, vol. 12, no. 4. [Translated title: “Inequalities, justice, and the post-communist transition”]
Guseva, Alya and Akos Rona-Tas. 2001: “Uncertainty, Risk and Trust: Russian and American Credit Card Markets Compared.” American Sociological Review, v66, n5.
Rona-Tas, Akos and Alya Guseva, 2001. “The Privileges of Past Communist Party Membership in Russia and Endogenous Switching Regression.” Social Science Research, 30(4).
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2003. “Bizonytalanság és a hitelkártyák piaca. Tanulságok az Egyesült Államokból és Kelet Európából”. (“Uncertainty and the market for credit cards.Lessons from the United States and Eastern Europe.”) Banking Review (Bankszemle), 2(5), 2003.
Rona-Tas, A and M. Sagi. 2005. “Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment in Transition Economies.” Research in the Sociology of Work, V105. pp.279-310
Rona-Tas, Akos and Nadav Gabay. 2007. “The Invisible Science of the Invisible Hand: The Public Presence ofEconomic Sociology in the USA.” Socio-Economic Review, V5(N2) pp. 334-355
Blanchemanche, Sandrine, Buche, Patrick, Dibie-Barthélemy, Juliette, Feinblatt-Mélèze, Eve, Ibanescu, Liliana, Rona-Tas, Akos. 2009. “Ontology Building: An Application in Food Risk Analysis.” Proceedings of 8th International Conference on Terminology and Artificial Intelligence, Toulouse (France), TIA
Róna-Tas, Ákos and Hiß, Stefanie. 2010. “Das Kreditrating von Verbrauchern und Unternehmen und die Subprime-Krise in den USA mit Lehren für Deutschland.“ Informatik-Spektrum 33(3): 241-261
Rona-Tas, Akos and Hiss, Stefanie. 2010. “The Role of Ratings in the Subprime Mortgage Crisis: The Art of Corporate and the Science of Consumer Credit Rating.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 30A: 115-155.
Hiß, Stefanie, and Rona-Tas, Akos 2011. “Wie entstehen Preise? Zur Lösung des Bewertungsproblems auf dem Markt für Ratingurteile strukturierter Finanzprodukte. ” Berliner Journal für Soziologie 21(4): 469-494
Rona-Tas, Akos, Alya Guseva. 2013. “Information and Consumer Credit in Central and Eastern Europe.” Journal of Comparative Economics, 41/2:420-435
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2017. "The off-label use of consumer credit ratings." Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung: 52-76.
Rona-Tas, Akos, and Alya Guseva. 2018. "Consumer credit in comparative perspective." Annual Review of Sociology 44: 55-75.
Rona-Tas, Akos, Antoine Cornuéjols, Sandrine Blanchemanche, Antonin Duroy, and Christine Martin. 2019. "Enlisting supervised machine learning in mapping scientific uncertainty expressed in food risk analysis." Sociological Methods & Research 48.3: 608-641.
Rona-Tas, Akos. Forthcoming. “Predicting the Future: Art and Algorithms.” Socio-Economic Review
Book Chapters (Peer-reviewed)
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1995. “The Second Economy as a Subversive Force: The Erosion of Party Power in Hungary,” Chapter 3 in The Waning of the Communist State: Economic Origins of Political Decline in China and Hungary, Andrew G. Walder, (ed.), Berkeley: University of California Press.
Rona-Tas, Akos and József Böröcz. 1995. “Formowanie sie nowej elity ekonomicznej,” in Elity w Polsce, w Rosji I na Wegrzech. Wymiana czy reprodukcja? Ivan Szelenyi, Don Treiman, Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski (eds.), Warszawa: Instytut Studiow Politycznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1996. “Post-Communist Transition and the Absent Middle Class in East-Central Europe,” in Identities in Transition: Eastern Europe and Russia after the Collapse of Communism, Victoria E. Bonnell (ed.), Berkeley:International and Area Studies.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1997. “Social Engineering and Historical Legacies: Privatization and the Business Elite in Hungary and the Czech Republic,” in Liberalization and Leninist Legacies: Comparative Perspectives on Democratic Transitions, Beverly Crawford /Arend Lijphard (eds.), Berkeley: International and Area Studies
Rona-Tas, Akos and Jozsef Borocz. 2000. “Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary andPoland: Presocialist and Socialist Legacies among Business Elites”, in J. Higley and G. Lengyel eds. Elites after State Socialism.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2001. “Legacies, Institutions and Markets. Small Entrepreneurship in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic”, in J. Beyer, J. Wielgohs, and H. Wiesnthal (eds.) Successful Transitions. Political Factors of Socio-Economic Progress in Post-Socialist Countries.Nomos Verlag Baden-Baden.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2002. “The Worm and the Caterpillar: The Small Private Sector in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia.” in V. Bonnell and T. Gold (eds.) The New Entrepreneurs of Europe and Asia: Patterns of Business Development in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China.
Rona -Tas, Akos. 2007. “The Three Modalities of Rationality and Their Contradictions in Post-Communist Consumer Credit Markets.” In Jens Beckert and Rainer Diaz-Bone eds.The Social Structure of Markets, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt/New York
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2009. “Consumer Credit and Society in Transition Countries.” Chapter 6. In Victor Perez Diaz ed. Markets and Civil Society, Berghan Books, New York.
Rona-Tas, Akos, Hiss, Stefanie. 2011. “Forecasting as Valuation: The Role of Ratings and Predictions in the Subprime Mortgage Crisis in the US.” Pp. 223-246 in Beckert, Jens and Aspers, Patrik eds. The Worth of Goods. Valuation and Pricing in the Economy. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Dhanjal, Charanpal, Blanchemanche, Sandrine, Clémençon, Stephan, Rona-Tas, Akos, Rossi, Fabrice. 2012. “Dissemination of Heath Information within Social Networks.”Pp.15-46 in Balazs Vedres Balazs and Marco Rossi (eds.), Networks in Social Problems, Oxford University Press.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2012. “The Rise of Consumer Credit in the Postcommunist Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.” Pp. 149-175 in Bandelj, Nina and Solinger, Dorothy J. (eds.) Socialism Vanquished, Socialism Challenged. Eastern Europe and China, 1989-2009. Oxford, Oxford University Press
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2015. “The Role of Credit Bureaus in Globalised Economies”, Chapter 11. In H.W. Micklitz and I. Domurath eds. Consumer Debt and Social Exclusion in Europe, Farnham; Burlington: Ashgate,
Rona-Tas, Akos and Alya Guseva. 2017. “Plastic Money Tattles: The New Sociability of Money”. Chapter 12 in Nina Bandelj, Frederick Wherry and Viviana Zelizer, Money Talks, Princeton: Princeton University Press
Alya Guseva and Akos Rona-Tas. Forthcoming. “Consumer Credit Surveillance,” Chapter 17 in The Oxford Handbook of Consumption.
Invited Articles
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1990. “Empirikus rétegzödésvizsgálat és spekulatív ideológiakritika,” Replika, Budapest, September. [Translated title: "Empirical Stratification Research and Speculative Ideological Deconstruction"].
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1991. “A racionális döntések elmélete a szociológiában,” Replika, vol. 4. [Translated title: "Rational Choice Theory in Sociology"]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2002. “Economic Sociology in Hungary” in the European Newsletter for Economic Sociology. Electronic Publication, URL: http://www.siswo.uva.nl/ES/esfeb02.pdf February.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2016. “Brexit: The Conflict of Globalization and Democracy,” Socio-Economic Review
Research reports
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1996. “The Czech New Wave: The Third Wave of Privatization and the Role of the State in the Czech Republic,” for National Council for Soviet and East European Research Grant.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1996. “Institutional Change and Managerial Mobility in Hungary and the Czech Republic,” for National Council for Soviet and East European Research Grant.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1997. “Persistence of Networks in the Post-Communist Transformation in Eastern Europe,” for Conference on Cooperation Under Difficult Conditions, UCSD, October.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2007. “Consumer Registries in the United States”. Report Prepared for the Hungarian Office of Economic Competition and the Hungarian National Bank
Rona-Tas, Akos and Stefanie Hiss. 2010. “Consumer and Corporate Credit Ratings and the Subprime Crisis in the U.S. with Some Lessons for Germany”.Report for the German Central Consumer Credit bureau, SCHUFA
Book reviews
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1993. “Autopsies of Communism” in Contemporary Sociology, review of Social Currents in Eastern Europe by Sabrina R amet and The Re-emergence of Civil Society by Zbigniew Rau in Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, vol. 22, no. 1, January.
Rona-Tas, Akos.1993. Review of Hungary: The Rise and Fall of Feasible Socialism by Nigel Swain, in The Slavic Review, vol. 52, no. 3, Fall.
Rona-Tas, Akos. Review of The Radiant Past: Ideology and Reality in Hungary's Road to Capitalism by Michael Burawoy and Janos Lukacs in American Journal of Sociology, vol. 99, no. 3, November 1993.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1995. Review of Changing Political Economics —Privatization in Post-Communist and Reforming Communist States, Vedat Milor (ed.), Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, vol. 24, no. 4, July.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1997. Review of Envisioning Eastern Europe: Post-communist Cultural Studies by Michael D. Kennedy in Social Forces, December.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1997. Review of Restructuring Networks in Post-Socialism: Legacies, Linkages, and Localities, Gernot Grabher and David Stark (eds.) in American Journal of Sociology.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1998. “Varieties of Transition: Emerging Economies,” in Contemporary Sociology; review of The Rise and Fall of State Socialism; Industrial Society and the State, by David Lane in Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, vol. 27, no. 1, January.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 202. Review of Marketing democracy: Changing opinion about inequality and politics in East Central Europe, by D.S. Mason, J.R. Kluegel, L. Khakulina, P. Mateju, A. Orkeny, A. Stoyanov, B. Wegener, in Contemporary Sociology – A Journal of Reviews, v.31, n.4, July.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2003. Review of Embedded Politics: Industrial Networks and Institutional Change in Postcommunism by Gerald A. McDermott, in Slavic Review, 62:4.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2006. Review of A New Capitalist Order: Privatization and Ideology in Russia and Eastern Europe by Hillary Appel, Slavic Review, (65:2) pp. 352-353
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2009. Review of Divide and Pacify: Strategic Social Policies and Political Protests Post-Communist Democracies, by Pieter Vanhuysse, in The American Journal of Sociology (114:5)
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2009. Review of Wolfgang Streeck, Re-Forming Capitalism: Institutional Change in the German Political Economy. Economic Sociology, The European Electronic Newsletter, 10/3:35-37.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2011. “The Uses of Uncertainty. Review Symposium”. Review of David Stark, The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life. Socio-Economic Review9:597-601
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2016. Review of Svetlana Stephenson, Gangs of Russia: From the Streets to the Corridors of Power, Contemporary Sociology, vol. 45, 6: pp. 796-798.
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2017. “The Importance of Thinking Forward”, review of Jens Beckert, Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics, Socio-Economic Review
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2019. Review of Sheldon Ekland-Olson and Jack P. Gibbs Science and Sociology: Predictive Power Is the Name of the Game, Contemporary Sociology, vol. 48, 4
Other publications
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1982. “Motor City: A Sociography of Detroit,” Valóság, Budapest, November.
Rona-Tas, Akos and Gabor M. Hanak. 1990. “Elektronikus vita a kisebbségek jogairól,” Valóság, Budapest, October. [Translated title: "Electronic Debate on Minority Rights"]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1991. “Michel Foucault:Ki egy szerző?” Pompeji, Szeged, vol. 3. [Translated title: “Michel Foucault: Who is an Author?”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 1992. “Nemzedékek és pártok,” FIDESZ a Magyar Politikaban - 1988-1991, Andras Bozoki (ed.), Budapest. [Translated title: "Generations and Parties"]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2000. “Gazdasagi elitek es atmenet”, in Élet és Irodalom, vol.18, no 4.[Translated title: “Economic elites and the transition”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2000. “Vallás, demokrácia és kugli” in Élet és Irodalom, vol.40, no.3. [translated title: “Religion, democracy, and bowling”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2001. “Az Alkotmánybiróság által választott államelnök” Élet és Irodalom, vol.45, no.3 [translated title: “President elected by the Supreme Court”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2003. “Demokrácia Kaliforniában” Élet és Irodalom, vol.47, no.46 [translated title: “Democracy in California”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2004. “A liberális demokrácia hanyatlása Amerikában” Élet és Irodalom, vol.48, no.41 [translated title: “The decline of liberal democracy in the United States”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2005. “Katrina, nyomor, Bush” Élet és Irodalom, vol.49, no.36 [translated title: “Katrina, poverty, Bush”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2005. “A multikulturalitás határa és csavarjai” Élet és Irodalom, vol.49, no.47 [translated title: “The limits and twists of multiculturalism”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2006. “Nemzetállami frusztráltság” Heti világgazdaság, November 8 [translated title: “The frustrations of nation states”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2008. “Éljen Barack!” Élet és Irodalom, vol.52, no.45 [translated title: “Long live Barack!”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2012. “A nemzetállamok térvesztése.” Élet és Irodalom, vol.56, no.5 [translated title: “Nation states losing ground”]
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2014. “A levélszavazatok rejtélye.” Élet és Irodalom, vol.58, no.16 [translated title: “The mystery of mail votes”]
Rona-Tas, Akos and David S. FitzGerald. 2015. “Walls are not the solution”, CNN Blog, September 29, http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/29/opinions/fitzgerald-walls-not-answer-immigration/index.html
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2015. “Hungary’s Response to the Refugee Crisis: An Orchestrated Panic”, Transit Online, 10/02, http://www.iwm.at/transit/transit-online/hungarys-response-refugee-crisis-orchestrated-panic/
Rona-Tas, Akos. 2015. “Dublin 3 Must Go and We Must Let Refugees Fly”, Visegrad Insight September 10, http://visegradinsight.eu/dublin-3-must-go-and-we-must-let-refugees-fly/
Databases and Software
HolyRisk Database. http://www6.inra.fr/holyrisk
Survey Analysis through Visual Exploration (SuAVE)
Recent External Grants
2001– 2003 Obstacles in the Development of Medium Sized Companies in Hungary ($28,000)
2003 Co-PI, European Union Grant, European Union, ($10,800)
2003– 2006 PI, Rational Calculation and Trust: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Emerging Credit Card Markets in Socialist, Post-Socialist and Developing Countries, National Science Foundation ($185,000)
2003 – 2006 Co-PI, Rational Calculation and Trust: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Emerging Credit Card Markets in Socialist, Post-Socialist and Developing Countries, National Science Foundation/Hungarian National Science and Research Foundation Collaborative Grant ($10,000)
2006 Co-PI, Rational Calculation and Trust: A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Emerging Credit Card Markets in Socialist, Post-Socialist and Developing Countries, Hungarian Bank Association ($5,000)
2008 – 2013 Co-PI with Sandrine Blanchemanche, Risk, Uncertainty and Trust in Food Safety Policy, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) (EU 440,000)
2009 PI, Paradigms of Risk Assessment and Uncertainty Policy Research, Worldwide Universities Network Foundation ($32,000)
2011 – 2015 External Consultant/Evaluator, National Science Foundation ($14,000)
2012 PI, Law and Finance Project, Institute for New Economic Thinking ($8,000)
2014 – 2016 Co-PI, EAGER: Data Visualization Project (SuAVE), National Science Foundation ($300,000)
Selected Recent Professional Activities
2018 – Chief Editor of Economic Sociology: The European Electronic Newsletter
2018 – 2019 President of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE)
2017 – Chair of the Advisory Committee at the American Sociological Association on the creation of the Sociology Action Network (SAN)
2016 – Member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Institute for Advanced Study of the Central European University
2016 Co-chair of the program committee of the Council of European Studies
2016 - Chair of the Viviana Zelizer Book Award Committee of the Economic Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association
2015 – 2018 Member of the Executive Committee and Treasurer of SASE
2009 – Founder and organizer of the Finance and Society Network at the Society for SASE
2008 Consultant to SCHUFA, the consumer credit registry of the German Banking Association
2007 Advisor to the Hungarian Government and National Bank on Consumer Registries
2006 – 2014 Member of the Supervisory Board of the Hungarian Anti-Poverty Network
2006 Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institute, Cologne
2005 Keynote Speaker at the Credit Card Workshop Organized by the People’s Bank of China, Shanghai, China
2004 Keynote Speaker at the Workshop of Credit Assessment and Bank Cards Organized by the Management Center of the Hanoi University of Technology in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam
Member of the Editorial Board of Szociologiai Szemle (Sociological Review)
Member of the Editorial Board of the Czech Sociological Review
Selected Invited Lectures
Renmin University, Beijing, 2019
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2019
Central European University, Budapest 2019
Tel Aviv University 2018
Bar Ilan University 2018
Princeton University 2018
University of Illinois 2017
UC Berkeley 2015
Brown University 2015
Boston University 2015
Harvard University 2014
Yale University 2014
Stockholm University 2014
Humboldt University Berlin 2014
Higher School of Economics 2013
European University Institute, Florence, Italy, 2013
Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, 2013
Hebrew University, Israel, 2012
University of Haifa, Israel, 2012, 2018
Max Planck Institute, 2012
Geary Institute, University College, Dublin, Ireland, 2012
Roland Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary, 2011
Indiana University, Bloomington, 2010
Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, 2010
University of Bamberg, Germany 2008
Harvard Business School 2006
Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania 2005
Max Planck Institute, Cologne, Germany 2005
European University Institute, Florence, Italy 2005
University of California, Irvine, 2004
Stanford University, 2004
University of Arizona, 2003
University of California, Los Angeles, 2003
Reviewer for
American Sociological Review
American Journal of Sociology
Social Forces
Social Science Research
Social Problems
Sociological Forum
Sociological Inquiry
Sociological Theory
Socio-Economic Review
Comparative Sociology
International Journal of Comparative Sociology
European Sociological Review
Journal of Environment and Development
Princeton University Press
Duke University Press
National Science Foundation
World Bank
Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Israeli Science Foundation
European Research Council
Swiss National Science Foundation
Max Planck Institute, Germany
Major Service UC San Diego campus and the UC System
2002-2006 Chair of the Committee on Admission
2002-2006 Member of the Academic Senate Council
2002-2006 Member of the Enrollment Planning Committee
2006 – 2007 Systemwide Board On Admission and Relationship with Schools (BOARS) UC San Diego Representative
2006 – 2007 Member of the Committee on Admission
2008 – 2009 Chair Review Committee of the EAP in Hungary
2009 – 2010 UC Commission on the Future, Member of the Working Group on Access and Affordability
2010 – 2011 Chancellor’s Review Committee
2010 – 2011 Academic Council’s Special Committee on a Plan for the University of California
2014—2017 Council of Chairs
2016 – 2017 Co-Chair of Dean’s Social Sciences Building Visioning Committee
2017 – 2018 Chair of the Committee to develop the program in Computational Social Science
