The story goes that there was a slightly inebriated person found under the light of street lamp searching for something. When asked by a police officer about what was happening, the person replied ‘I’m looking for my house keys’. They both searched together but found nothing. When the police officer...

Recently we have seen increased attention being given to the nature of employment and in particular to the quality of employment. There is hardly a day that passes that when we pick up the newspaper or turn on the radio that we do not hear talk of ‘precarious work’, ‘insecure jobs’, ‘zero hours...

When the £1 billion supply and confidence deal was signed between the Conservatives and the DUP last summer, many across the water began to take a more in depth look at the public finances in Northern Ireland. When they examined official statistics, many were horrified to learn that a region to...

Never let the data get in the way of a good story. In their landmark book, How Ireland cares: The case for health reform , published in 2006, Dale Tussing and Maeve-Ann Wren recount some wild claims by a Minister for Health regarding the extent to which Ireland was spending far in excess of other...

In recent years one economic trend in particular has become increasingly important for policymakers across most western economies and that is productivity. It has become such a significant issue because while most other economic metrics eventually began to recover following the 2008 crash...