Jenő Koltay graduated from the Karl Marx University of Economics Budapest in 1966 and got his Ph.D. in Economics from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1974. Since 1967 he has been working at the Institute of Economics, from 1991 to 2004 as the Director of the Institute, from 2005 he is Research Director, responsible for the Public Economics research programme. His research field extends from industrial relationsand wage determination to local goveernment finance and taxation. He has authored a large number of publications in Hungarian, English, French and other languages, related to wage fixing and collective bargaining, incomes policy, taxation, budgetary policies and local government finance. He has been participating intensively in international research projects, including European Union financed programmes and has been visiting fellow in French and German research laboratories. He is teaching regularly in Hungary and abroad, currently at Pannon University Veszprém, in 1994-1997 as Visiting Professor at the Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, in 2000-2003 as Széchenyi professor at the Eötvös Lóránd University Budapest. He has been elected to scientific committees, boards and actively involved in commission and expert work on economic and social transformation. Among others, he was a member of the International Blue Ribbon Commission (1991-1994), the European Policy Initiative (1996-1999), Hungarian Tax Reform Commissions (1985-1988) and a consultant for Hungarian and French governmental agencies, trade unions, employers’ federations and international organisations (UNIDO, ILO, World Bank). He has been Member of the Board of Directors at Gedeon Richter Ltd. since 1998 and at Budapest Waterworks (2002-2007).