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Over the last century, there has been a dramatic change in both the composition and the structure of the Irish tax system. In this paper, we construct a new dataset of tax rates and tax bands for the main tax headings in Ireland, from 1920-2019. We document these changes and trends in tax policy in the aggregate and using the main tax headings. One striking regularity, however, is that Irish tax policy has been persistently procyclical. While tax revenues are naturally expected to vary with the cycle, we show that changes in tax rates have been conducted procyclically. Most notably, we find strong evidence that governments have tended to adjust the rates of income tax in a procyclical manner over the past century. Using an additional tax policy changes dataset, we show that discretionary tax measures - which incorporate all tax policy instruments (rates, bands, credits, exemptions, etc.) - have been largely procyclical over the period 1987-2019. These findings are in contrast with other developed countries, where tax policy has tended to be acyclical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous research papers have used Irish-only data to test for the presence of an investment gap for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this paper, we use cross-country firm-level survey data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys to explore the investment patterns of Irish enterprises in a cross-country context and test whether an investment gap is present when compared to other countries. We use an accelerator model of investment which links capital expenditure to firm output growth and test the sensitivity of investment to this key fundamental for Ireland and other countries. We then estimate whether Irish firms face an investment gap relative to their European peers. We test whether any differences in cross-country patterns are driven by variation in financial factors (such as credit access or indebtedness) or firm quality (managerial experience, website usage, operating profitability). We find that Ireland's investment in fixed tangible assets is relatively well explained by these factors whereas a clear underinvestment in research and development expenditure emerges. Factors associated with investment in research and development include the degree of foreign technology usage, digitalisation and internationalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are increasing pressures on firms to adjust to the major global challenges of climate change and rapid developments in digital technologies. To date, the impacts of these two challenges on firms have largely been examined as separate issues. However there are suggestions of overlap, with the potential of digital technologies to help economies and firms shift to greener production methods. This paper provides a novel contribution to this literature on a "twin transition" by examining for the first time the overlap at a firm level between climate actions and digitalisation. The data are drawn from a large-scale survey of 3,000 firms in Ireland in 2020. The report includes novel questions on energy use, climate adaption priorities and digital strategies along with a wide range of firm characteristics. Our key outcome variables are the degree of digitalisation in the firm, if it has a climate plan and does it implement climate actions such as monitoring emissions. We find considerable overlap between having a climate and a digital plan in place across firms, while controlling for a range of other firm characteristics. At the same time, we find a reasonably large share of firms have positive attitudes to the importance of climate planning but without reporting corresponding concrete actions, suggesting a gap for policy to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we use Irish data to simulate the impact of housing supplements (like HAP and RAS) on deprivation. We consider this effect overall and for different social risk groups, using the SILC dataset. We also compare the predicted deprivation of housing supplement recipients to the predicted deprivation of Local Authority tenants. Housing supplements are designed to cover the housing needs of vulnerable families in the private rental sector and many of these supplements provide important support. We find that housing supplements are more common among vulnerable social risk groups; lone parents and the unemployed are the most likely to receive these. We also find that recipients of housing supplements have similar rates of predicted deprivation when compared to those in Local Authority housing. Finally, we show that the predicted probability of deprivation falls after we consider the impact of these on a respondent's total equivalised income. This effect is particularly large for vulnerable groups like lone parents. The paper helps to understand the importance of housing supplements as a means of reducing deprivation, and the social risk differences in this effect. Debate on the topic of housing supplements has focused on the transfers' costs to the Exchequer, but their efficacy as a form of social protection has been less examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the first empirical estimation of cross-price elasticities of public and private transportation using a fully flexible demand system and Irish data. Focusing on vehicle owners, in line with the existing literature, the results show that these commodities are complements. This paper also finds that additional carbon taxation is not as regressive as previously found, when the externality cost associated with driving is included in the metric of the tax incidence. A lump-sum transfer and subsidies for public transit can reduce the disproportional burden imposed on low-income households by the carbon tax. However, it is shown that subsidies need to be targeted because benefits are not accrued disproportionally by low-income households, and this can reduce environmental savings from carbon taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to quantify the effect of economic, parental and lifestyle factors on the psychological health of children at significant points in recent economic history in Ireland. The paper uses data from the Growing Up in Ireland Study and employs a dynamic random effects ordered logistic regression model to test the magnitude of these effects. The results indicate that proxy income variables, such as ability to make ends meet and homeownership, are relevant in predicting child psychological health outcomes. Equally important are intergenerational health associations between the mother and the psychological health of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agri-food sectors in Northern Ireland (NI) and Ireland (IRL) have become more integrated with more investments from IRL in the north and advances in all Ireland cooperation on animal health and welfare, and disease control. However, as both jurisdictions are considered structurally similar and both have a large dairy and beef sector, they are competing in the Great Britain (GB) market for agrifood products. When considering the island of Ireland agri-food sectors in the context of Brexit and the NI Protocol, there will be clear winners and losers under different Brexit and NI protocol scenarios. What constitutes a relatively “good” economic outcome for NI farmers may come at the expense of IRL farmers, while relatively “good” economic outcomes for IRL farmers may amplify negative outcomes for NI farmers. This paper analyses the impacts of the NI Protocol in terms of what it means for the agri-food sectors in IRL, NI, but also for the island of Ireland (ISL) as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to draw lessons from the Irish experience of COVID-19 by concentrating on the importance of mobility, especially the role of commuting. As lockdown periods progressed, we found increasing levels of workplace attendance, over and above what would be expected if only essential workers were physically going to work. Mobility-related variables were significantly associated with increased incidence of the virus at a national level. The level of inter-county essential worker commuting was found to be inversely related to infection rates in the workers’ home county. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global financial crisis heralded a new era of macroprudential mortgage regulations such as loan-to-value and loan-to-income restrictions. Such measures safeguard the financial system, but can lead to credit access difficulties, in particular for first time buyers. In this paper, we examine the introduction of a direct public mortgage, the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan (RIHL), which aims to address these difficulties in Ireland. We use new unique granular microdata for applications to the scheme to explore the relationship between households applying to the scheme and the broader commercial market. We show that RIHL applicants, particularly those in urban areas, are under-served by the commercial market as they cannot borrow sufficient amounts due to the regulatory framework. RIHL enables these lower to middle income applicants to access mortgages and thus directly targets the externality from the regulations. We argue these public loans bridge credit gaps while ensuring the commercial banks are subject to strong macroprudential rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring the cost of housing for official estimates of inflation is of particular importance given the share of household expenditure that housing accounts for. In this paper, we present a measure of owner-occupier housing inflation using a rental equivalence approach for Ireland. We use supervisory microdata on tenancy registrations from the Residential Tenancies Board coupled with census data on owner occupation by region and housing type to develop an estimate of rental equivalence for the period 2015 to 2019. We then use this housing cost in an estimate of inflation and find that adopting such a measure would increase the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) by 1.6 percentage points in September 2019. We also discuss data and measurement issues with our approach, compare our index to other publicly available data and suggest areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from the 2014 Special Module of the European Social Survey on attitudes to immigration to investigate attitudes towards Muslim and White immigrants in Ireland. Drawing on theories of social identity, ethnic threat and social distance, the paper develops hypotheses about which factors influence attitudes to Muslim immigrants, and how and why they might differ from attitudes to White immigrants. Comparing these attitudes, we find evidence of an "ethnic hierarchy" in Ireland, with more positive attitudes to White than to Muslim immigrants. We also find that age and religious practice are associated with attitudes towards Muslim immigrants, but have only weak effects on attitudes towards White immigrants. The analysis reveals that an international terrorist attack had a negative effect on attitudes to Muslim immigrants but not on attitudes to White immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines housing affordability in Ireland by looking at the distribution of housing costs across households. Using microdata from the SILC survey over the period 2006-2016, the contribution of this paper is threefold. First, the paper considers the trends in the cost of housing in Ireland across groups of households split by age, region, household structure, and their position in the income distribution. Second, we apply selected international housing affordability definitions and explore the share, and composition, of households in Ireland that would be captured by these definitions. We do not find evidence of universal affordability difficulties in the Irish market. However, certain groups do face acute affordability challenges. Third, working towards a definition of housing cost affordability for use in Irish policy discussions, we provide some guidance as to what such a definition could look like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines anonymous and non-anonymous Growth Incidence Curves (GICs) for after-tax disposable income for Ireland during its recovery period after the Great Recession, 2012-2019. In the absence of suitable panel data, the non-anonymous GICs were constructed on a cohort basis with cohorts formed on the basis of gender, highest level of education attained and the year of that attainment. Both types of GICs are broadly downward sloping over the period indicating that growth was pro-poor on average. Older and less well-educated cohorts fared relatively better over the recovery period, with the corollary that younger, more highly educated cohorts fared relatively less well. Virtually every cohort experienced positive growth however. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the position of drug education workers who deliver drug education in non-formal education settings to children and young people in Ireland. Employing secondary data and document analysis, the paper analyses three national drug strategies and the annual reports of 21 local and regional Drug and Alcohol Task Forces (DATFs), in order to determine the prominence of drug education workers within the statutory response to illicit drug use in Irish society. Drug education has been on the Irish Government agenda since the 1970s; however, drug education continues to remain a small field in Ireland, underfunded and without any national representative voice. This paper argues that drug education in Ireland is becoming subsumed into the formal education sector and positioned primarily within the remit of teachers of Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE). Drug education workers who provide educational programmes in non-formal education settings are unacknowledged in Ireland's most recent national drug strategy and this poses a risk to education programmes that take place in non-formal settings, and diminishes the role of youth and community services/organisations in abating illicit drug use at local and community levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the socioeconomic determinants of property crime and violent crime in Ireland between 2003 and 2012. The aim of the study is to determine whether individuals respond to incentives when deciding to engage in crime and whether this decision is dependent on the type of crime an individual engages in. The results of the paper support the economic theory of crime which indicates that criminals respond to incentives, particularly for property crimes. Higher detection rates have been found to reduce crime rates for property crimes while the impact on violent crimes is found to be insignificant. The socioeconomic determinants of crime tend to be more ambiguous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though Ireland and Poland differ in their GNI levels per capita, economic history and economic systems, their levels of income inequality calculated on disposable income were very similar in 2016. However, there is a lack of current research comparing these countries from the perspective of tax-benefit systems that alleviate inequality. Therefore, this paper seeks to answer the research question of whether the differences in welfare state regimes that shape tax-benefit systems in Poland and Ireland are reflected by the role the taxes and social transfers play in tackling inequality. Our study is based on microdata from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey. We apply a factor decomposition to determine what roles various factor components play in determining overall inequality. The results reveal that the redistributive effect was stronger in Ireland, resulting in greater income inequality reduction than in Poland through policies affecting the unemployed, families and taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our analysis makes use of three comparative European datasets to investigate the nature and meaning of working with 'No Contract' across a range of European societies in the mid-2010s. Using the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS, 1995-2015), European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS, 1995-2015), and European Social Survey (ESS, 2002-2016) we show that the presence of workers with 'No Contract' is a significant feature of the labour market for a small number of Mediterranean countries, Ireland and the UK. We analyse how respondents describe their employment situation in different countries, given different possible contract categories; the subjective perception of their labour market insecurity by workers in various contract situations; and investigate how 'No Contract' working relates to other key variables in particular work and employment configurations. The paper reveals two primary patterns of 'No Contract' working. The first is related to 'temporary contract' work, with 'No Contract' employment serving as a related form of casualised work in the Mediterranean economies in particular. This also suggests that estimates of precarity are somewhat under-estimated in Mediterranean and Liberal economies in Europe. The second is present only in the UK and Ireland and represents a group of 'No Contract' workers primarily in market services, whose situation is best analysed as a particular, potentially more uncertain, form of permanent work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to control its spread resulted in a collapse in global economic activity. Both governments and central banks responded to the deep economic crisis with unprecedented policy interventions. In this paper, we use both a global and a domestic structural macroeconomic model to estimate the impact of these exceptional policy supports on the international economy and on Ireland. Our analysis seeks to quantify the positive spillovers to the Irish economy from the fiscal, monetary and macroprudential policy interventions introduced globally and describes the transmission channels through which these policy actions affect Ireland. We also estimate the impact on economic activity and the labour market of the unprecedented fiscal packages introduced in Ireland. Our results indicate that the combination of international and domestic policy interventions have helped to substantially reduce the fall in output in Ireland from COVID-19, boosting growth in 2020 by up to 8 percentage points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the introduction of rolling public health restrictions, conditions in Ireland's labour market deteriorated significantly. In response to the widespread impacts on businesses and workers, the Irish Government, as part of a broader suite of policy measures, introduced the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) in March 2020. Through the lens of the PUP, this paper explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ireland's labour market and its implications for post-COVID recovery and policy. In particular, this analysis examines the demographics of impacted workers over time, rates of payment relative to pre-pandemic earnings and the potential scale of the post-COVID labour market challenge, via an exploration of long-term recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic literature suggests that a revenue-neutral shift of tax revenues from income taxes to property taxes would increase GDP per capita in the medium term. This paper analyses for Ireland the consequences of such a shift in the tax mix. In particular, it examines whether this can be carried out in a way that would neither undermine income distribution nor depress government revenue. Simulations using the ESRI tax-benefit model, SWITCH, suggest it is possible to achieve such a broadly revenue-neutral tax shift in a non-regressive way, while lowering marginal tax rates for most taxpayers. In particular, reductions in the Universal Social Charge would reduce marginal and average tax rates and have a positive impact for the income of most households. This could be funded by shifting the tax base toward residential properties, though this might have an adverse effect on income distribution, due to Ireland's high rates of home ownership throughout the income distribution. The analysis shows that low income groups could be protected through the careful introduction of income-related supports, with revenue losses recovered through a more progressive property tax rate structure. Overall, the simulations show that a shift from labour to property tax can be pro-growth and pro-employment, without equity losses. The paper therefore suggests that tax reform can be inclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines revisions to Irish quarterly macroeconomic data focusing on growth rates of real GDP as well as the main expenditure components. A real-time database is constructed from the Central Statistics Office's Quarterly National Accounts release. This is used to measure the extent of data revisions while also formally testing the presence of statistical bias in Irish data. Although estimates of GDP are found to be unbiased, the same cannot be said for some of the subcomponents, most notably investment spending. Using data from the OECD, we compile an additional data set for 25 OECD economies to assess the relative scale of revisions to Irish data. Finding that revisions to Irish real GDP growth rates are among the largest observed - even when allowing for differences in growth rates - we examine a number of factors that may indicate why cross-country differences emerge. The scale of data revisions, particularly in Ireland, appears to bear some relation to the structure of the traded sector. More generally the paper also highlights the potential for weaker forecasting performances in countries where data revisions are likely to be relatively high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an econometric analysis of Wagner's Law in Ireland for the period 1970-2012. To estimate the long run relationship between government expenditure and gross national product per capita the bounds testing procedure of Pesaran and Shin (2001) is employed. The analysis is performed using both real and nominal variables. The paper finds that although government expenditure has been rising over the period in question the rate of growth has not outpaced growth in GDP per capita, thus weighing against Wagner's Law. Results are robust across a selection of the most prominent model specifications in the literature, and to the volatility in government spending during the recent crisis. Some policy considerations are also explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data between 1987 and 2018 from three wealth surveys in Ireland to identify factors driving wealth dynamics in the short and long run. We show that ownership of housing is crucial. Changes in asset prices and mortgage debt also play a role. Inequality rose between 1987 and 2018 due to higher leverage for households in the middle of the wealth distribution and falling homeownership. Increased ownership of financial assets and businesses for wealthier households are also important. Between 2013 and 2018 rising house prices increased wealth particularly for households in negative equity after the financial crisis, contributing to falls in inequality in this period. Household leverage ratios declined substantially up to 2018. On the eve of the COVID-19 crisis households were more financially resilient when compared to their position a decade before at the onset of the financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal equalisation is a key element of a country's intergovernmental arrangements where functions and funding are decentralised to subnational government. Although Ireland's horizontal fiscal imbalances are partly reduced by grants from an equalisation fund, the current model of equalisation payments is not fit for purpose. In this paper, we design a new fiscal equalisation system for Ireland's 31 local authorities based on a Representative Revenue System model and estimates of fiscal capacity. Using the main local revenue sources, we estimate fiscal capacity for 2017, and calculate formuladerived equalisation transfers for the financially weaker local councils. Compared to the actual transfers funded from the local property tax, our results provide for a larger equalisation fund financed by the central government, a greater degree of equalisation, but with individual council winners and losers. Careful consideration needs to be given to the funding options available to the net losers, including higher taxes locally levied on commercial and/or residential properties, or where deemed necessary, a temporary transition payment from the central government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compensation for future loss due to wrongful injury in Ireland is currently determined at discount rates that do not take account of current market conditions and on a historic mortality basis. We quantify the impact of assessing damages using a more appropriate discount rate, mortality basis, and method of capitalising the loss. This results in the quantum of damages increasing significantly, and figures are given quantifying the increase by the term of the loss. Total outstanding liabilities of the State Claims Agency now exceed €3 billion, about half of which is in respect of catastrophic birth injuries caused by negligence in the delivery of maternity services. The change in the basis by which compensation is calculated outlined in this paper would increase the estimate of outstanding liabilities by over €1 billion and perhaps closer to €2 billion. We argue the current under-compensation of plaintiffs incentivises the State to settle by way of lump sum and is therefore an obstacle to the required legislation for appropriately indexed periodic payment orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we draw on the Central Statistics Office SILC data for Ireland to ask whether fuel poverty is a distinctive type of deprivation that warrants a fundamentally different policy response than poverty in general. We examine the overlap between fuel poverty (based on three self-report items) and poverty in general -- with a particular emphasis on the national indicator of basic deprivation which is used in the measurement of poverty for policy purposes in Ireland. We examine changes in the overlap between 2004 and 2011 and the risk factors for fuel poverty compared to those for deprivation more generally. The paper concludes, based on evidence from factor analysis and multinomial regression, that fuel poverty is better regarded as an aspect of low living standards rather than being a distinct dimension of deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economists offer what is arguably the most internally consistent framework for sustainable development assessment, the so-called "capital approach". To operationalise the capital approach, measures of the changes in comprehensive national wealth (Genuine Savings) are required. In this paper, we present estimates of Ireland's Genuine Savings using the updated public spending code for direction and compare our results with existing estimates in the literature. For practical sustainability assessment, no single indicator is capable of providing an all-encompassing answer, but as we demonstrate, the current monitoring of sustainable development in Ireland and across the EU lacks coherence. We suggest potential paths forward for sustainability policy and assessment that preserve the link with economic theory. We show that regardless of the viewpoint taken on sustainability, the capital approach can provide guidance for a coherent assessment framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of household waste (HHW) policy has been announced. Competition in HHW collection is evolving towards a series of local monopolies which, combined with high barriers to entry, create the conditions for rents to be earned. So much for market failure, what is the solution? This paper presents arguments in favour of competitive tendering, including: HHW collection charges should be more attractive as rents are eliminated; CO2 emissions and congestion costs would be reduced as there is no inefficient duplication; and complementary mechanisms can ensure that HHW collection charges do not get too high in low density areas, thereby protecting the positive externalities of broader take-up of HHW collection services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates tax elasticities for Ireland. We compile a new dataset on tax policy changes in Ireland. This allows us to use policy-adjusted revenue when estimating tax elasticities. This gives us a cleaner estimate of the relationship between government revenue and its economic drivers. We find that income tax elasticity estimates are significantly above one when policy-adjusted revenue is used, as opposed to significantly below one when unadjusted revenue is used. This highlights the importance of using policy-adjusted revenue when estimating elasticities. We also estimate elasticities of Pay Related Social Insurance and Value-Added Tax, which have previously received little attention in the Irish literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates government spending multipliers for Ireland. We add to the existing literature on Ireland-specific fiscal spending multipliers in two key ways. First, we focus on measures of economic activity that remove distortions caused by foreign-owned multinational enterprises, thus allowing us to derive truer estimates of the impact on the domestic economy of changes in fiscal policy. Second, we employ a number of statistical approaches in order to sense-check the multiplier estimates we derive, including standard SVAR approaches, an expectations-augmented VAR (EVAR) approach, and estimates based on a large-scale structural model. Our results show that government investment can have positive and significant initial impacts on Irish output, though these effects tend to disappear and/or become statistically insignificant over the longer term. Other forms of fiscal spending do not have a statistically significant effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exploits a unique reform in Irish corporation tax policy to evaluate the effect of tax incentives on research and development (R&D) investment. Using administrative panel data from the Revenue Commissioners, we establish for the first time the additional R&D investment that arises from the provision of the tax credit and we examine the associated firm characteristics. We find that the tax incentive helped to increase R&D investment by firms; however, the estimated effect is driven by older firms rather than younger firms. The latter result challenges a common narrative on the role of R&D tax incentives which increase cashflow for young firms: it suggests that their barriers to innovation may not necessarily be financial, and that age-targeted tax incentives could carry large deadweight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent paper by Madden used concentration indices to examine the bases of party support in Ireland in the 2011 election. This note updates this work to incorporate the 2016 election using the latest wave of ESS data. The results show that in terms of the bases of party supports many of the features of the 'earthquake election' of 2011 remain, in particular the widely differing support bases for Fine Gael and Sinn Féin. Concentration indices with respect to income show little change from the 2011 election. However, there is some evidence that the support base for Fianna Fáil in 2016 was older and less well-educated than in 2011, with the change in support base for Fine Gael over the same period a mirror image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Marriage Bar is the requirement that women in certain jobs must leave that job when they marry. Ireland had a Marriage Bar in place until the 1970s. In 2014/2015, women participating in the The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing were asked -- for the first time in a nationally representative survey -- specific questions about their experience of the Marriage Bar. In this paper, we use the information from the TILDA respondents for two purposes. The first is to investigate the extent of the Marriage Bar in Ireland. Our analysis suggests that the Marriage Bar was widespread and not confined to specific sectors or occupations (such as the civil service). The second purpose is to investigate the long-term consequences of the Marriage Bar. We do so by comparing the outcomes of women who were affected by the Marriage Bar with the outcomes of women who were not affected by the Marriage Bar. Regression analysis shows that women affected by the Marriage Bar have shorter working lives, lower individual income but higher household wealth at present, more children and more educated children. However, there are no statistically significant differences in the current health status of the two groups of women. The differences in long-term outcomes do not appear to be confounded by the endogeneity of marriage, education, employment and occupational choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the medium- to long-term perspectives for the Irish banking system. Consistent with the finance-growth literature, financial deepening had a limited impact on growth in Ireland before the crisis and cannot be expected to contribute significantly over the short to medium term. The paper documents that, compared to its benchmark, the Irish banking system is still very unbalanced, with a heavy reliance on international funding, and limited competition. Given its membership in the Eurozone and the EU, Ireland depends very much on global and European regulatory reform trends, some of which are more important for Ireland than other European economies. Critically, the shape and resilience of Irish banking will depend on the shape the Eurozone banking union will take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the structure of Ireland's tax system. Considerable attention is given to GDP and GNP as measures of Ireland's taxable capacity but how appropriate are either of these measures given the structure of Ireland's economy and how does the structure compare internationally? The paper also examines the distribution of income tax and the threshold for the top marginal rate as a percentage of the average wage and identifies Ireland as an outlier internationally in terms of the rapid progression to the highest marginal rate. Consideration is then given to the microeconomic and macroeconomic impacts of various forms of tax what lessons emerge from the literature in terms of growth enhancing reforms to the overall tax structures and how that might apply to Ireland. The results of simulations suggest permanent increases in GDP and employment from a revenue neutral shift from labour to consumption or property taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intersection of national and transnational processes in shaping Ireland's financial crisis. It uses insights from economic sociology to reconcile the analytical tension between an understanding of Ireland's crisis in terms of the unfolding of an international process and explanations that focus on specific national features. A series of significant policy decisions in the late 1990s favoured financial markets in allocating capital and opened up significant institutional space for speculative lending. Underneath the apparently consistent expansion of the property lending bubble since the mid-1990s, there was a significant shift in investment logics from the early 2000s as both residential and commercial real estate spending became detached from underlying demand. This shift in logic was based on two significant "translations" of investment rationalities into justifications of lending and investment that underpinned the bubble. Irish banks' own conceptions of risk and rational investments shifted subtly over time so that property lending was translated into a rational investment, encouraged by market dynamics such as increased bank profits, rising share prices and concentration of decision making power in the banking system. At the same time, and in the context of the establishment of the euro, investing in the assets of Irish banks was translated into a rational investment for international banks, in large part through the metrics of the credit ratings agencies. The paper concludes by revisiting the question of how we should understand the specifics of particular financial crises in conjunction with the general dynamics of financialisation - pointing to the importance of "translation" processes in creating social rationalities and the significance of "market liberalism" as a social formation in enabling these translations and promoting financialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the cost to the Irish state of its bailout of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC). The paper discusses the IBRC's balance sheet, its ELA debts to the Central Bank of Ireland and the promissory notes provided to it by the Irish government to pay off its liabilities. Options for reducing these costs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminal justice policy in Ireland is often criticised for lacking a robust evidence base. Increased knowledge about crime and criminal justice may act to enrich all types of criminological enquiry and policy formation. This paper explores the potential of large population registries, similar to those created in the health sector, to inform criminal justice policymaking. The paper looks at the importance of such data collection for criminal justice research and policy and the potential hurdles to its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In health care, there is extensive empirical evidence that the behaviour of both providers and users is affected by the financial incentives that they face. In this paper, we adopt a system-wide perspective and develop a conceptual framework to examine how current financial incentives in Irish health care conflict along four dimensions: provider versus user, user across type of provider, provider versus provider, and provider across type of user. We highlight areas within each of these four dimensions where current financial incentive structures are incompatible with existing policy priorities. The analysis in the paper also provides a framework to assess the effects of proposed policy changes on financial incentives within the health-care system using a joint analytic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates, using the most recent Irish Household Budget Survey of 2004/2005, a double hurdle model to determine the socio-economic and socio-demographic factors affecting participation and expenditure of Irish households on the national lottery. Of particular interest is the effect of income on the decisions of how much participants spend on the lottery. The paper also determines the extent to which the tax inherent in lottery purchases is regressive in its incidence on purchasers. It is found that gender, social class, marital status, the presence of children in the home and household size significantly effect lottery participation. Lottery expenditures are affected by income, location of the household, gender, age, education, social class and whether the household has positive betting expenditures. Furthermore, there is evidence that the implicit lottery tax is regressive and that the allocation of lottery proceeds does not compensate for this regressivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a significant movement towards digital learning internationally. However, policymaking in Ireland regarding the use of ICT in education, specifically second-level education, has been lacking. Students' experience of technology at school varies hugely. The current debate has become device focussed rather than content focussed. This paper examines how the lack of clear policy by the Department of Education and Skills has led to resistance by many stakeholders in embedding the use of technology into schools, and particularly teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the work of Fitzsimons et al. (1999) on the level of trade between Ireland and Northern Ireland. In doing so, we reflect on the recent move to prominence of this issue since the referendum decision of the UK to leave the EU and also on the shift within the economics literature to looking at trade issues from a micro rather than a macro perspective as data availability has grown. Our country-level results show the same pattern of limited statistical significance for a border effect as was found in the earlier work still holds, but when using firm-level data we find a positive and significant border effect. This effect holds for total trade at firm and product level with the primary determinant coming from the intensive margin, both in terms of average exports per firm and average exports per product within firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The FDI-intensity of the Irish economy has been a frequent topic of contributions to The Economic and Social Review over the years. The paper begins by reviewing the FDI-related distortions that complicate the measurement of Irish economic performance. It then extends the analysis to discuss how these might affect the identification of the factors behind the strength and rapidity of the recent recovery. The measures underlying the 'internal devaluation' perspective are shown to be infected by these same distortions. The asymmetric characteristics of the Irish economy are argued to require that greater attention be paid to export structure than is standard in textbook macroeconomic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we provide an overview of the movement in Ireland from a focus on income poverty to the incorporation of deprivation indicators in a multidimensional approach to the measurement of poverty. We then seek to place this approach, involving a restricted incorporation of deprivation dimensions, in the context of a broader multidimensional approach to the understanding of poverty in Ireland. We proceed to extend our consideration to multidimensional approaches to quality of life which have involved macro and micro approaches to developing aggregate measures that go well beyond the normal concerns of poverty research. In so doing, we will seek to show that while all of these approaches must face key judgements relating to choices of dimensions, thresholds, weighting and aggregation, there is significant variation in the challenges posed in relation to the scale of aggregation, the degree of multidimensionality aspired to and the availability of data sources that match such ambitions. Given these issues, the superiority of a multidimensional approach and of a focus more broadly on quality of life must be demonstrated rather than assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first provides a brief survey of research on the gender wage gap in Ireland, particularly in The Economic and Social Review. It then documents recent research on how the gender wage gap varies across the wage distribution; the gap now appears to be greatest for high earners, for whom it also tends to be largely unexplained by human capital variables. Finally, it uses a combination of recent research results and some descriptive analysis of the Labour Force Survey to consider the potential importance of occupation in explaining the gender wage gap. It concludes with a call for further research in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the key findings of an evaluation of the Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) Programme, the largest full-time further education (post-secondary non-tertiary) programme in Ireland. This programme has multiple purposes - preparing people for employment, acting as a bridge to higher education and serving as a second-chance route for adult learners. Based on evidence from both administrative data and a unique specially-designed learner survey, we find positive results for the estimated counterfactual impact of PLC provision on employment at 16 per cent relative to similar individuals who entered the labour market directly on completion of their (upper secondary) Leaving Certificate, with a corresponding positive estimate for transitions to higher education standing at 27 per cent. Nevertheless, the evaluation found that PLC courses were often poorly connected to the labour market and that reforms could further improve the labour market prospects of leavers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends a theoretical and empirical framework commonly applied in international finance to present an alternative paradigm within which issues of tax revenue volatility in Ireland can be studied. We establish a trade-off between revenue growth and volatility, typically associated with financial asset returns. We observe strong but time-varying cointegration among tax revenue streams. Statistical tests of mean-variance spanning suggest diversification benefits from holding Income Tax and Excise Duty. We establish the minimum variance tax portfolio, and also find that, from a meanvariance optimality perspective, the portfolio consisting of 2017 tax shares is sub-optimal. Practical policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of antenatal care in determining mode of birth in the Irish healthcare system using data from the Growing Up in Ireland study. Results indicate that midwiferyled antenatal care is independently associated with significantly higher rates of normal delivery and significantly lower rates of elective caesarean section relative to consultant-led care in both the public and private sectors. Given concerns over increasing rates of caesarean section, our results are consistent with calls nationally and internationally for further investment in midwifery-led antenatal care services, and for stricter regulation of the actors, both providers and patients, engaged in the private antenatal care pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to safe drinking water and wastewater services is essential for public health, and wellbeing, but attitudes differ regarding how such services should be funded. In Ireland, the 2014 introduction of a domestic-sector, consumption-based, charging regime was met with public protests, leading eventually to the suspension of charges in 2016 and a subsequent recommendation by a parliamentary committee that they be abolished. Given that some form of domestic water charges exists in all EU countries, and that charges may still be required to comply with EU legislation, it is important to understand why the Irish domestic-charging policy failed. This paper presents five factors that were arguably influential in generating the opposition to such charges: whether water services are perceived as public, private or social goods; levels of public trust in government; personal values; 'framing' of the water charges policy; and the timing of the introduction of charges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National corporate tax systems interact with each other in complex ways. Interactions with the US tax system are particularly important for Ireland given the significance of the US MNC presence in the Irish economy. The US system changed dramatically with the passage of the Trump administration's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in late 2017. This paper outlines the history of corporate tax policy in the two jurisdictions and how the systems interacted up to the time of the recent changes. It also details the type of aggressive tax planning practices that grew up around the location of intellectual property assets. The likely implications of the new US tax regime for intellectual property location and inward FDI in Ireland are then assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]