Monday Blog: It's party time again?
ews of rising house prices, fewer households in negative equity, falling dole queues, rising spending in the shops and the long farewell to the Troika together with a relatively benign Irish summer, so far, have lifted the economic mood a little in the Republic of Ireland. In the North the spillover...
Monday Blog: The economics of aye or nay
Adam Smith, a Scottish political economist and philosopher of the 18thcentury is famous for having written The Wealth of Nations. He is less well known for having written an important work entitled The Theory of Moral Sentiment. The latter work is a very important contribution to moral and political...
Productivity a danger for UK and NI
There were conflicting messages in the statistics released today on the Northern Ireland economy and labour market. On the labour market side, both measures of unemployment have fallen significantly for the three months from March to May of this year. The claimant count (literally a count of those...
Uncertainty and Economic Recovery
Slowly, the Irish economy is recovering; very slowly! Over the weekend, I and other economists contributed to a journal.ie article ( see here) on the two-speed nature of the recovery. While the exchequers finances are improving (lower unemployment, higher employment, some increased spending...
How is the Economy Doing?
External event contribution Presentation to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Lunchtime Learning series on July 8th 2014.
Monday Blog: US-EU trade deal (TTIP): separating the baby from the bathwater
Trade and investment across regions and continents can be good for people. It can raise levels of productivity, create jobs and encourage global cooperation to the betterment of all. Better to make trade than war especially when it comes to food, energy, medicines and the many goods and services...
Unemployment falls, but at a slower rate
The latest CSO data shows a stabilisation in unemployment rates when compared to the previous month. The standard unemployment rate is currently at 11.8% for May, identical to the rate in April, and 12.0% for the period January to March. This is equivalent to roughly 4,300 less people unemployed...
Donal Nevin Lecture on Banking in Ireland
Professor Stephany Griffith-Jones gave this year’s annual Dónal Nevin lecture on the future of banking in the EU and in Ireland. The lecture focused on the role a public development bank can play in boosting growth and job creation. Professor Griffith-Jones cited the success of the Kreditanstalt für...
Annual Dónal Nevin Lecture 2014
Professor Stephany Griffith Jones gave this presentation at the annual Dónal Nevin lecture 2014. The talk focused on the role public investment banks, such as Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) in Germany, can play in boosting Ireland’s economic recovery, and made specific proposals on how...
Employment creation slows to 1,700 as lone mothers left behind
In somewhat disappointing results (seasonally adjusted) employment grew by only 1,700 jobs in the first quarter of the year. In many ways 2013 can be seen as a blip in terms of job creation as various temporary factors (such as 'The Gathering', self-employed workers moving off Jobseekers Benefit...