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...
Fact Gathering on the Minimum Wage: What do the meta-studies show?
Ireland set up a Low Pay Commission earlier this year with a mandate to (amongst other things) recommend to government on an annual basis on appropriate changes to the rate set for the National Minimum Wage (NMW). The employment impact of changes to the NMW has long been hotly contested with...
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...
Still a high income country – despite the recession
Indicator 4.1 from the NERI’s latest Quarterly Economics Facts (QEF) document shows that despite the elongated economic crisis, the Republic of Ireland’s income per capita remains high. The latest data, for 2013, show that Ireland’s average income of €35,600 is the sixth highest in the EU. The...
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...
Monday Blog: Northern Ireland has taken greatest hit on living standards
A key issue in the run-up to the UK General Election has been changes in living standards. While economics is not everything in the universe, the level and change in living standards is a very important factor in shaping the climate of public opinion. Not just the level and change in living...