The Long-Term Gains to Debt Repayment

The FT has quite a lot of articles and letters on the Iceland situation.   This op-ed provides an interesting historical perspective on the gains to debt repayment.

US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

The public phase of this commission’s hearings are about to begin:  this week’s Economist provides a useful report on the work of the Commission. You can read this article here.

The Returns to a College Education

The CAO deadline is approaching here in Ireland.  Click here for an entertaining analysis of the returns to a college education in the United States (double click the graphic to enlarge it).  Another example of the power of graphical representation.

CSO Seminar on the Use of Administrative Data

Administrative Data Seminar – 22nd February 2010

– An added dimension to Official Statistics

Seminar Programme is now available.

Venue: Dublin Castle, Erin Room, Dublin 2
Time: 13.30
Date: February 22, 2010
To Register: Email: corporate.support@cso.ie
or
Contact: Sabrina Bowen @ 021-453 5495

The Central Statistics Office has for many years now been using administrative data to broaden the range, scope and depth of analysis that it can provide to support evidence based policy making. The seminar will highlight some of the achievements to date in this domain and hopefully provide a focus for further developments. The recently published NSB strategy highlighted the need to focus on the development of administrative data holdings and to accelerate the development of a coherent “whole-system” approach to official statistics that links CSO generated statistics with administrative data holdings.

The broad objectives of the seminar are

  • To promote enhanced engagement from stakeholders in the Irish Statistical System by providing concrete examples of the benefits that exploitation of administrative data and matching/linking of sources can provide;
  • To inform stakeholders of current activities and the potential benefits to them (e.g. greater range of statistics, more in-depth analysis, reduced respondent burden, more timely statistics ) from these activities;
  • To highlight what can be achieved when the necessary statistical infrastructure (unique identifiers, postal codes etc.) is in place right across the system.

The Eurozone’s Next Decade Will be Tough

Martin Wolf writes on the adjustment problems within the euro area: you can read it here.