Month: September 2010

Clouds Over Dublin Soon To Break Up

This is the view of Michael Vaknin of Goldman Sachs Global ECS Markets Research:

Irish bonds have substantially underperformed the rest of EMU periphery.
A heavy pipeline of Irish bank debt rolling off soon brings back memories of the Greek turmoil.
But we believe risks are overpriced, as several backstops are in place:
The banks can increase funding through the ECB liquidity programs.
And the ECB could intervene again in ‘dysfunctional’ sovereign markets.
More fundamentally, we argue that Ireland’s issue is liquidity, not solvency…
…Hence if the EFSF is activated, spreads would likely fall significantly.
Watch for signs of ECB intervention and banks’ reduced issuance to cement the case for ‘long’ Ireland.

Do Academics Only Work 15 Hours a Week?

This is a touch on the navel-gazing side but, at the same time, since everyone seems to agree that having high-quality universities is an important element in future economic growth, it seems worthwhile explaining how academics actually work.

Continue reading “Do Academics Only Work 15 Hours a Week?”

Heckman Policy Website

James Heckman’s work on human capital investment has been prolific over the last number of years and has major implications for a wide range of policy areas. His papers are rarely easy reading, drawing from detailed structural econometric models that he has developed over several years with colleagues. A new website outlines his basic ideas in short and accessible videos and documents (h/t Colm Harmon who is one of a number of colleagues in UCD working on this area in Ireland). This is as close as it gets to a clear answer to a major question in Economics and is essential for any policy people who read this blog across fields such as health, education, social policy, criminal justice and a range of other fields. Heckman has emphasised rigorously designed and evaluated early childhood interventions that promote a broad range of skills and personal development.

Reform of the Euro Area

The will be much EU-level discussion of economic governance reforms in the next couple of months. This week’s issue of The Economist provides a briefing and an editorial on the topic.

Robert Merton: Hamilton Lecture (October 15)

Robert Merton will give the RIA Hamilton Lecture on October 15 at TCD on the topic

Observations on Mathematical Finance in the Practice of Finance

The event is free but you need to book a spot: the details are here.