Báger was born in 1938, and before 1990 he worked as an expert for the UNʼs European Economic Committee, and as a director of the National Planning Office of the government, MTI said.

He later served on the boards of several Hungarian commercial banks, worked as a director at the Finance Ministry, and was the head of the Development and Methodology Institute of the State Audit Office of Hungary, it added.

He is a lecturer at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest. He is also a member of the Hungarian Writers Association.