Author: Ronan Lyons

Founded in 1977, the Dublin Economics Workshop (DEW) Annual Economic Policy Conference is Ireland’s longest standing and premier forum for economic policy debate. Attended by policymakers, academics and practitioners, it aims to provide an opportunity for evidence-based policy debate and discussion. The 43rd DEW Annual Economic Policy Conference will take place on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th September 2020 in Clayton Whites Hotel, County Wexford.

The Committee would like to invite those interested in presenting at the conference to submit a paper or proposal to sarah@dublineconomics.com by Friday 27th March. Papers and proposals on the following topics are especially welcomed:

• Housing
• The health system
• Income inequality and poverty
• International corporation tax reform
• Competitiveness
• The Future of EU and UK relations

All submissions will be treated fairly but cannot be guaranteed to be accepted for inclusion.
Barra Roantree (Economic and Social Research Institute), on behalf of the DEW Committee

The Low Pay Commission of Ireland is seeking applications for two Research Bursaries of €25,000 each. The purpose of these bursaries is to provide more knowledge and information in relation to low pay and labour market economics in Ireland. More information is available here and is summarised below.

• Applicants must be either full-time researchers or Ph.D students with a supervisor with expertise in the relevant area.
• Research proposals must be on topics related to low pay in Ireland or related topics where the research would have a bearing on the issues which the Commission is obliged to consider in its terms of reference (available at the link).
• The recipient of the bursary would commit to producing a substantial piece of research, completed with a year of 27th March 2020 (the date at which approvals will be known), which should be of a standard that it could be publishable in a good peer reviewed social science or economic journal. The recipient would be expected to provide a progress report on the work within 6 months and to supply a finished research paper which would be presented in a public seminar within a year of receiving the bursary.
• While the research bursaries will be for one year, we are hopeful that this scheme will run in future years. If this is so, researchers who are engaged in projects that last longer than a year will be free to reapply for continuing funding.

Applicants should send a completed application form (available at the link) as well as a C.V to secretarylpc@welfare.ie by 28th February 2020. (Ph.D student applicants should also send their supervisor’s CV, as well as a letter from their supervisor supporting their application, confirming that they are supervising the applicant and outlining how the project would be supervised over the period of the bursary.)

A message on behalf of my Trinity Economics colleagues, Carol, Davide and Michael, who are organising this year’s Irish Economics Association conference [RL]

The 34th Annual Irish Economic Association Conference will be held in Trinity College Dublin on Thursday, May 7th and Friday, May 8th, 2020.

The keynote speakers will be Prof. Hélène Rey, Professor of Economics at the London Business School, and Prof. Ulrike Malmendier, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Association invites submissions of papers to be considered for the conference programme. Preference will be given to submissions that include a full paper. Papers may be on any area in Economics, Finance and Econometrics.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 14th of February 2020 and submissions can be made through this site. Kindly note that there will be no extension to this deadline this year.

More information is available at the iea.ie website: http://www.iea.ie/2020-iea-annual-conference/

The Department of Finance has published a detailed review of its approach to tax forecasting, its first such review since 2008. These are periodic exercises undertaken to assess the methodology and accuracy of forecasts. Especially in the context of on-going debate about the sustainability of various tax headings, it will no doubt be relevant for those with an interest in public policy, macroeconomics, forecasting and tax.

For those interested in fiscal issues and tax modelling/forecasting, two economists in the Department of Finance, Gerard McGuinness and Diarmaid Smyth, have just published a working paper looking at Corporation Tax.

The paper uses both micro- and macro-economic perspectives and focuses on the marked rise in CT receipts and corporate profitability since 2014 is highlighted.

The paper is available from this link.