Imre Szabó is a doctoral candidate in political science at the Central European University, Budapest. His doctoral project deals with the political economy of public sector employment from a welfare state point of view. His research is motivated by the dual nature of public employment, namely that on the one hand it serves as a protection mechanism for the employees themselves, but it also provides workforce for welfare state services. He is exploring this duality in the context of post-socialist countries, focusing on the puzzle of why Baltic states are maintaining higher public employment levels than Visegrad countries, when other parts of their welfare states are less developed. Imre also analyzed industrial relations in the Hungarian public sector and the public healthcare system as a research assistant in the European Commission?s GUSTO-FP7 programme.