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Economic Development (1958) remains a document associated with T.K. Whitaker’s role in Ireland’s shift away from protectionist economics. Whatever the report’s exact role in changing the direction of Irish economic strategy, the reputation of Economic Development greatly exceeds that of An Economic Survey of Northern Ireland (1957), which was a report authored by Isles and Cuthbert, two Belfast-based academics. The economic analysis contained within both reports/strategy documents along with their respective fates forms the focus of this paper. The relative failure to implement the analysis set out by Isles and Cuthbert, as well as its relative obscurity, rests on a range of factors. Perceptions of the acuteness of the respective economic problems, issues of authorship, the close interaction between political leadership and major industries/firms in Northern Ireland and the range of actionable policy prescriptions presented in a report are all important in explaining the contemporary and subsequent receptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates cultural dimensions and processes of exclusion in rural Ireland and Russia that impact upon marginalised rural people by making them poor. It employs Bourdieu and Passeron’s (1977) concept of cultural capital, which provides understanding of both structural effects of cultural discrimination and individual strategies of cultural reproduction on well-being. First, it explores the function of cultural capital as a power resource that can be used to monopolise certain cultural preferences. Second, the paper studies the function of cultural capital to mark cultural distance and to put people with less-valued cultural resources in a disadvantaged position that can limit poor people’s access to social settings and resources. Third, the paper investigates the function of cultural capital to exclude individuals by means of regulating their aspirations and cultural dispositions, which degrade social bonds and limit people’s sources of economic growth. The results of this study reveal the complexity of classificatory effects of cultural practices on poverty and argue against treating culture as a residual category in poverty studies. It takes on board the findings from this study to critically re-evaluate certain stereotypes of hardship and to articulate the need for a broader understanding of rural poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents future scenarios of Irish energy-related CO2 emissions to 2020, using a combination of multi-sectoral decomposition analysis with scenario analysis. Alternative development paths, driving forces and sectoral contributions in different scenarios have been explored. The scenarios are quantified by using decomposition analysis as a Divisia Index SCenario GENerator (DISCGEN). The driving forces of population, economic and social development, energy resources and technology and governance and policies are discussed. A set of four integrated or ‘hybrid’ qualitative and quantitative baseline emission scenarios are developed. It is found that sectoral contributions and emissions in each scenario vary significantly. The inclusion of governance, social and cultural driving forces are important in determining alternative development paths and sustainability is crucial. Our empirical results show that decomposition analysis is a useful technique to generate the alternative scenarios. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper we undertook an analysis of the Economic Structure of Towns in Ireland, classified by size. While economic development in Ireland is often viewed as an East-West issue, the situation is more complex. Traditionally towns were regarded as having poor demographics, while our analysis indicates that towns have experienced net inward migration and although they have a higher dependency ratio than cities, it is due to more children. However towns exhibit lower skill levels on average and a greater reliance on low growth sectors. In particular, towns have had the highest impact in terms of changed unemployment as a result of the economic downturn. This is particularly manifested via one third of working age households having no one at work and with a higher poverty rate than the national average. This has had a greater impact on savings during the crisis than the national average, with consequential impacts on domestic demand. Smaller towns on average are more likely to have a higher share of employment rather than jobs as a result of commuting to larger growth centres. We developed an indicator known as economic strength that combines unemployment with migration. Larger towns were weaker in terms of this index. Also there was a significant spatial spread. The weakest towns were more likely to be the local growth centre for more depressed regions, be more peripheral, and have lower skills. We concluded by recommended a targeted policy programme to make towns more attractive to live in and visit; to make it easier to do business; to increase consumer demand and sentiment; and, to improve access to finance of SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the methodology and results of an experimental Composite Economic Index developed by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). The aim of the Index is to provide a short term measure of the performance of the NI economy using a mainly output based approach. It combines existing official statistics series from the Index of Services, Index of Production, Index of Construction, Agriculture and public sector employee jobs based on their relative share of annual GVA to provide a chain-linked measure of total quarterly economic activity for NI. The index is not a comprehensive measure of quarterly Gross Domestic Product as there are no income and expenditure components. However the composite methodology has been applied to the equivalent UK series and the results correspond well with the UK GDP series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over three decades, the share of national income going to labour in most countries has been in decline. Conversely, capital's share of national income has increased. The trend in the decline in labour's share of income has been less noticeable as national income has continued to rise. The reasons for the decline in labour share are complex and will be analysed. This decline has been secular, other than a small recent temporary reversal in some countries. This paper will examine (i) the trends in this decline in many countries, including Ireland; (ii) the definitional issues and trends within both the labour and capital share; (iii) its causes; and (iv) the implications for economic development and the consequences of this shift on economies and societies. The decline in labour's share has contributed to increased inequality in the distribution of national income and there has also been a substantial redistribution within the labour share. The decline may have major consequences for economies, with declining demand and other impacts and also for societies, where social cohesion may be threatened by a continuation of the trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the imminent removal of milk quota in 2015, EU dairy farmers will be able to expand production without purchasing milk quota rights for the first time in 30 years. This paper uses Irish National Farm Survey data to simulate the expansion capacity of Irish dairy farms. Specifically, the likelihood of achieving the 50% increase in production target published in the Irish Government's Food Harvest 2020 Report is explored. Potential milk output is estimated accounting for structural change and the economic viability of production under three price scenarios for 2020. In addition, the number of new entrants that would be required to meet the 50% target is calculated. The results indicate that the 50% output volume growth target set in the Food Harvest report will be difficult to achieve and that future potential milk output depends importantly on the rate of structural change and productivity growth as well as on real milk prices in 2020. A regional analysis reveals that relative to other regions, the south has the greatest expansion capacity. This suggests that quota removal could cause significant regional restructuring of milk production, which is likely to present some challenges to the dairy processing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the peak of the recent property boom, housing equity withdrawal, or "top-up" loans, accounted for around one-third of residential mortgage loans issued. This collateral-based lending was typically issued at a significant discount to other forms of personal lending, often at tracker rates. Following the collapse of the Irish housing market, the value of "top-up" loans issued in 2011 was down 96 percent from 2006 - the peak year for this form of lending. This paper draws out some of the trends in housing equity withdrawal over the last decade, both in terms of the extent of lending that occurred and the reasons for borrowers taking out such loans. From a domestic demand perspective, the concern would be the extent to which this form of borrowing fed into domestic consumption and the longer-terms implications for Irish economic growth. In this context we show that equity withdrawal trends are strongly positively correlated with a number of demand measures, mainly related to spending on durables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fifty years since the publication of Economic Development has been a time of change and growth for Ireland. Analysis of the development of the structural composition of the economy in this period requires a consistent and comprehensive dataset from the late 1950s onwards. The national income and expenditure tables have changed over time and a consistent set of historical tables is only available from 1970 onwards. Gross value added by sector in the official historical series is given for only a small number of sectors. In this paper the tables of gross value added by sector in current and in constant prices, are extended backwards to 1957 and expanded to include fifteen industry groupings. A new comprehensive and consistent dataset spanning fifty years of the Irish economy is thus constructed. Details of the methods and sources used to develop these series are presented. A context for analysis is set out based on the framework or model developed by Professor Carlota Perez in a series of publications since 1983 and most notably in her 2002 book Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital. Structural changes of the economy over the period are analysed. The analysis shows how different sectors have contributed to the economy over time. It also reveals, in the Irish case, that structural change can be independent of economic growth. The Irish economy is set in the context of the Perez model of technological revolutions and Ireland?s place in current and past technological revolutions is evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ireland's dramatic economic boom of the 1990s has been referred to as 'the era of the Celtic Tiger'. In a little over a decade, real national income per head jumped from 65% of the Western European average to above parity, unemployment tumbled from double to less than half the European Union average and numbers at work increased by over 50%. Much research has been carried out on the impact of each of the separate elements agreed to have been important in stimulating or sustaining the boom. The present paper focuses on one key under-researched synergy - the nexus between the country's industrial strategy, which focused on attracting foreign direct investment in certain high-tech sectors, and the orientation of the third-level educational system that had been developed in Ireland over recent decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prefamine Irish living standards have proved enigmatic. They are intriguing because they hold the key to understanding the trajectory of economic development in the first half of the nineteenth century. They have remained elusive because of the paucity of available information. Using Australian data, this paper examines regional trends in Irish-born female convict heights, identifying divergent tendencies between west and east that left Ulster women the tallest in the land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]