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Knowledge of whether, and over what range of output, there are economies or diseconomies of scale in providing local communal services is an important question from a theoretical, practical and regional political point of view. The theoretical side of the question is connected to the primary research regarding the optimal city size. If an optimal city size can actually be established, then a valid policy argument can be made for fostering its approximation. However, theoretical considerations are sometimes based on those types of assumptions, which are often not valid in reality. Therefore, empirical investigations are essential in this research area. After a short theoretical overview, the paper initially gives a general outline of previous controversial empirical evidence on economies of scale regarding community size and the provision of local communal services. In the second part, the empirical findings are presented; these concern economies of scale in local communal services based on a large and detailed database, which consist of almost 300 Hungarian settlements. During the research, a number of methodological questions have occurred. For example, there are several solutions for the organisational structure providing local services, from a large holding to the smaller individual companies. Considering this and some other issues, the main results suggest that on a community level, there are moderate economies of scale in water supply, sewage disposal and district heating and a moderate diseconomy of scale in refuse collection until 5 thousand inhabitants. Above this level there is no connection between the settlement size and the average cost of services. The results are mainly consistent with the previous findings: there are economies of scale under a certain threshold, but after this, unit cost reduction is not feasible. This threshold can be different in the different types of services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The touristic use of sacred sites is a widespread practice in Hungary. Throughout the past centuries, Christianity has dominated the history of the Carpathian Basin. The Hungarian State's strong affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church dates back to its foundation over a 1000 years ago. Due to its location on the shore of Lake Balaton and outstanding natural environment, the Benedictine Tihany Abbey is a major touristic destination and a popular place of pilgrimage in Hungary. The objective of the present paper is to examine how touristic activities contribute to the livelihood of a Hungarian monastic community and local economic development in the 21st century. To answer the research questions, the study primarily relied on literature and documentary analysis, in-depth interviews, and the construction and processing of a database. The research revealed that in addition to the classic elements (e.g., guided tours in the abbey, museum exhibitions, concerts, etc.), the program offer developed by the monastic community of Tihany is capable of addressing new target audiences: the rapidly rising number of tourists from the Far East (mainly Japan, China, South Korea, and Russia). Despite remaining considerably below visitor numbers recorded by the abbey in the mid-1990s, a significant increase in visitor numbers was observed in 2018–2019. The economic activities of the Benedictines of Tihany comprise a number of different areas beyond tourism, e.g., agricultural production and candle making, both of which are integrated into their tourism offer and feature among touristic programs. As a major employer, the abbey exerts a positive impact on the population retention capacity of the settlement by offering jobs to local residents, and it also contributes to population growth by attracting a large number of highly skilled professionals who choose to settle down in the region. The paper shows the evidence of the pandemic on pilgrimage and religious tourism in Tihany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]