Month: December 2011

Economic Geography Conference, January 30

As part of its fortieth anniversary celebrations, the Department of Geography at NUI Maynooth is organising a one-day conference on Networks and Flows in Economic Space. National and international academics will present papers on export flows, spin-off networks, innovation networks, finance networks, multinational global production networks and regional development. The keynote speaker is Henry Wai-Chung Yeung, Professor of Economic Geography at the National University of Singapore.

Free Registration at: geography.department@nuim.ie
Conference details and list of speakers here.
For further information, contact: chris.vanegeraat@nuim.ie

Cornell Alumnus Is Behind $350 Million Gift to Build Science School in City

Chuck Feeney has been a major donor to the Irish university system; the NYT reports on his latest gift in the US in this article.

Poll tax to be replaced by property tax

According to this piece in the Irish Times, the Cabinet have copped on that there is little support for a poll tax. Maybe they have realized too that poll taxes are not terribly smart from an economic perspective either.

An expert group will now be established, to report in Spring. As this discussion is not exactly new, our submission is as good as ready. Ronan Lyons’ has made good progress with his, as has Karl Deeter (also on video). Let’s hope the expert group will take this advice to heart.

Last week, though, I got a number of phone calls from journalists about a plan by the chartered surveyors that everyone should get their house valued by them. That would be an unnecessary transfer of money from the general population to a small group of professionals. There are substantial databases on property values already (CSO, revenue, estate agents, etc).

CORRECTION: The chairman of Residential Agency Practice Group of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland points out that they have never called for all properties to be valued. Apologies to all involved.

IMF Fourth Review

The fourth review of the Extended Arrangement  for Ireland can be read here.  This is the updated IMF projection of the general government gross debt up to 2016.

In the third review the IMF had set a target of €7.4 billion for the primary exchequer deficit in June 2012.  This target has now been revised to €9.0 billion. 

The target this year had been €10.1 billion and the June 2011 outturn for the primary exchequer deficit was €8.4 billion.  We can have a €0.6 billion deterioration in the primary exchequer deficit in the first six months of next year and still meet the IMF’s target.

Fiscal Fan Charts – A Tool for Assessing Member States’ (Likely?) Compliance with EU Fiscal Rules

David Cronin and Kevin Dowd have released a new Central Bank paper on this topic here.