On the Generosity of Ireland's Welfare System
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...
Monday Blog: Doing, learning and teaching political economy
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...
NERI Seminar Dublin: Funding Options for Higher Education
Slides from the April NERI seminar on funding options for higher education. The presentation is based on 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 outlines a...
Funding Options for Higher Education
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...
Improving women's access to the labour market could create 65,000 jobs
A new paper ( available here) highlights some of the most prominent features of the Irish labour market; a polarised labour market with relatively low labour market participation for women. The implication for this is that, by increasing labour market access for women, roughly 65,000 jobs could be...
Monday Blog: Why should taxpayers pay for ‘free’ higher education?
Why indeed? Data published by the CSO and OECD show much better earnings and employment outcomes for third level graduates. The cost of providing higher education is not small. At approximately €9,000 on average per student per annum the true total cost varies by location, type of course and field...
Monday Blog: The temptation of Odysseus
In the ancient Greek epic poem Odyssey, the ship of Odysseus sails past dangerous rocks as his ears are tortured by the sweet song of the Sirens. This song drove Odysseus mad with desire, and his sailors had to tie him to the ship rail, prohibiting him from giving in to temptation. If it were not...
Monday Blog: Poverty, Wages and Violence
The publication – coincidentally – of two reports in Northern Ireland in the last week has drawn attention to the importance of wages in the Northern economy. While the reports received very extensive media coverage in the Northern media, there was very little in the South. This is regrettable as...
A Budget for the few
Budget 2014 announced some interesting measures for pensioners and savers but overall the economic strategy remains as it was. Government fiscal policy remains committed to reductions in government expenditure extending to the end of the decade despite serious concerns over the sustainability of the...
The Recession and Child Poverty
The proportion of the Republic of Ireland’s children living in households whose income is below the 60% of median income poverty line has experienced limited change over the past few years. While the years 2006-08 recorded a decrease from 22.3% to 18.0%, by 2011 (the latest data available from the...