The topic of pensions is not the most exciting matter to consider on a bright spring Monday morning. If you are below a certain age you are more likely to be preoccupied about other matters including getting employment that pays an adequate and sustainable income in the near-term. If you are above a...

Earlier this week, the OECD launched their preliminary review of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs. The review rightly complements the significant labour market progress of recent years – a point we highlight in the most recent NERI Quarterly Economic Observer. There we anticipate unemployment...

Some years ago a fellow economist queried why economic inequality is a problem. He suggested that people are born with different endowments of talent and opportunity and a degree of social difference in outcomes is not only natural but good as a spur for economic performance. In any case, he argued...

As with buses, in Northern Ireland you wait and wait for economic statistics and then two come at once. Today the figures for the Northern Ireland Composite Economic Index were released. The NICEI is the latest attempt by statisticians to come up with a figure for economic growth in Northern Ireland...

The April NERI seminar took place this afternoon in the INTO Learning Centre. Tom Healy provided an overview of a recent paper, co authored with Austin Delaney, " We need to talk about Higher Education ". The paper argues the current model of funding for higher education is unsustainable. It...