Monday Blog: Inequality and Budget 2016
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...
Monday Blog: Corbyneconomics and Northern Ireland
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...
Monday Blog: The wealth of nations is not so even
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...
Recap on the NERI Labour Market Conference
The third annual NERI labour market conference was held on 1 May in Riddel Hall, Queen's University Belfast. The event was held in conjunction with the Queen's Management School and featured presentations on a wide range of areas. Details on the topics covered, including links to the slides, are...
Almost 100,000 children live in families dependent on FIS
The current focus on low pay and precarious work practices has set the scene for the work of the recently formed Low Pay Commission in the Republic of Ireland. One aspect of their work will be to look at the number of individuals trapped in low pay, many of whom are dependent on the social...
Monday Blog: Spring is in the air
The late Robin Williams once declared that spring is nature’s way of saying ‘let’s party’. The arrival of the ‘Spring Economic Statement’ last week had a seasonal dimension to it: a heightened expectation in advance, a very predictable outcome, a dash of hope and sunshine but some lingering chills...
Monday Blog: 'These truths we hold to be self-evident...'
‘These things we hold to be self-evident …. ‘ is a line taken from the 1776 USA Declaration of Independence. Given the emerging debate - such as it is – in the Republic of Ireland on matters to do with taxation, social spending and related areas it would seem that the following ten canonical...
Monday Blog: Triangulating pay, taxes and the 'social wage'
[The following is an extract from a speech given recently at the Annual Delegate Conference of the Public Service Executive Union - PSEU] It is urgent that evidence is brought to bear on important political and social debates. It is also important that those issues and questions that are neglected...
NERI Seminar: Examining the Net Wealth of Irish Households
The latest NERI seminar took place on Wednesday 22 April 2015. Dr Reamonn Lydon, Central Bank of Ireland, presented research based on a novel dataset on households’ income, assets and debts in Ireland: the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS). The HFCS is an invaluable resource for policy...