Last week a delegation from the European Commission (the TAXE committee) visited Dublin as part of their work examining the structure of the EU corporate taxation system and the reforms it requires. As somebody who researches various taxation issues, and as a former member of the Commission on...

The development of closer economic ties between both parts of Ireland has been a feature of growing European integration as well as the establishment of a ‘peace dividend’ following the Good Friday agreement of 1998. While much research work has been undertaken in relation to cross-border and all...

Employment has increased significantly, in the Republic of Ireland, since 2012. This is very welcome. While the details and scale of the increase has been open to statistical interpretation it is clear that a recovery in output in most sectors of the economy has spilled over into job creation (See...

The headline figure in the Quarterly National Household Survey is a 2.2 per cent increase in employment in the year to the first quarter of 2015. Other notable figures include: i. A 26.9 per cent annual decline in part-time underemployment—indicating that people in part-time jobs looking for extra...

After an interlude the idea of economic inequality is back on the agenda. A combination of events, observable trends and, more recently, the published works of economists such as Thomas Piketty, Tony Atkinson and Richard Wilkinson have helped put the spotlight on the question of social inequality...

There is a view shared widely, North and South, that (i) the overall contribution of indigenous (or native) enterprises is underdeveloped, (ii) a large-scale reliance on foreign direct investment (especially in the case of the South), while welcome in itself, is not a sustainable long-term strategy...

There are many measures examining differences in various socio-economic characteristics among men and women. In general, women are better educated, healthier, live longer but earn less – factors which in themselves point towards gaps in societal equality for both sexes. Focusing just on income, it...

The election of a new leader to the UK Labour Party signals a potentially important milestone. Many see this development in extremely negative terms while others see it as a welcome break in thinking and policy not only in the UK but across Europe. Whatever readers may think of Corbyneconomics or...

When Adam Smith wrote ‘The Wealth of Nations’ in 1776 wealth consisted mainly of land, housing and other treasures. While comprehensive data are hard to come by, Thomas Piketty in his book, Capital in the 21 st Century, managed to track the main trends and composition of wealth in a number of large...