He started his academic career after graduation from the Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences in Budapest. Between 1983-1993, he was a researcher of the UN Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva. After returning to his native country, he became an active participant of the Hungarian privatization process. He served – inter alia – as Deputy Government Commissioner for Privatization in 1994/95 and played a major role in the largest transactions in energy and banking. In 1997/98 he was promoted to Deputy State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. His portfolio included the pension reform, the preparation of the healthcare reform and municipal financing.
Professor Mihályi has more than two decades of experience in teaching health economics at BA, MA and PhD levels. Since 2012, he is Editor-in-Chief of Acta Oeconomica, an English language academic quarterly with an impact factor (2019: 0.914).
During the last 15 years, Professor Mihályi's research has been focused on health policy issues. He is currently affiliated with the Corvinus University of Budapest as tenured professor of the Economics Department and the Central European University as a Recurrent Visiting Professor since 1996. Professor Mihályi is an often consulted expert by UNCTAD, UN ECE, the World Bank and the European Union. He authored 12 books, from which five dealt with healthcare. His most recent English-language book is entitled, Health Insurance Reform in Hungary, Vol.1-2. In 2006-2008, he was the Personal Advisor of two successive health ministers in Hungary. Simultaneously, he was Leader of the Health Committee within the State Reform Committee. During the recent COVID-19 crisis, Professor Mihályi published several articles in the Hungarian press in order to inform the public about the most recent scientific findings.