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read before the Society, 24 January 2008, In the first half of this paper I summarise the trend in Irish deaths rates over the period 1973-2006. In the second half I discuss some possible explanations of these trends.

Following a preliminary discussion of various aspects of the Irish "regional problem", this paper examines the evolution of employment shares, unemployment rates, wage levels, and interregional commuting patterns in the regions of the Republic of Ireland since the 1980s. The evidence shows that all the regions participated in the unprecedented employment boom of the 1990s and that regional disparities in labour market performance fell markedly. Regional unemployment rates seem to adjust quickly to changes in the national rate. The reasons for the relatively successful experience of the Irish regions are discussed. It is argued that there is a need to re-examine the current concern with the regional distribution of economic activity in light of the paper's findings.

This article reviews the transformation of the Irish economy since the early 1980s. Credit for the initial stabilisation of the economy is given to the shock therapy of cutting expenditure, favourable exchange rate and other external developments. Possible explanations of the higer rate of growth of output now being achieved include a high level of investment in human capital, improved quality of physical capital formation, and a falling burden of taxation. The contribution of the return to centralised wage bargaining and the role of European Union (EU) assistance are also discussed. The prospects for further economic growth over the medium term are considered to be good.

Read before the Society, 3 March 1972, The importance of the concept of equal pay appears to derive from the notion that unequal pay represents discrimination against women, and hence is unjust. There is however a basic difficulty in defining "equal pay". The Commission felt that "outside the public service such a provision would affect only a small proportion of women workers". We certainly concur in this reasoning, since about 25 per cent of women workers are in occupations that are 90 per cent or more female and no doubt if more detailed data were available on grades etc. it would be clear that very few women are doing work for which there is an exactly comparable male rate of pay.

Read before the Society, 7 May 1971, There has been a resurgence of interest among economists in the theoretical and empirical aspects of labour supply and demand. Additionally, the present widespread interest in the position of woman in society naturally focusses attention on her role in the economy, and creates a demand for information regarding the relevance of sex as a variable in studies of the labour market. The present study is intended to provide some information on these topics in an Irish context.

This is a study of some of the economic and demographic determinants of the decline in employment among farmer and farmers' relatives between 1951 and 1961 in the Republic of Ireland. Net migration and employment decline have been studied separately for each of these employment categories, and multiple regression techniques applied to test a model of the dynamics of the family-farm labour force. The principal findings reported are: (i) there is some responsiveness to expected family-farm income in the migration decisions of both employment categories, but this factor does not account for much of the inter-county variation in migration in either category ; (ii) a major source of variation in employment decline among farmers is the number of farmers' deaths expected over the period, and (iii) the increase in the number of farmers' relatives expected in the absence of migration does not contribute significantly to the explanation of employment decline, but does account for much of the variation in the level of net migration, among this employment category. These findings are, in general, confirmed when the model is tested on age-specific data. In addition to illumination the reasons for the changes that have occurred in the family-farm labour force between 1951-61, it is believed that the model presented here can be readily applied to help forecast the future behaviour of this labour force.