Category: events

The Fiscal Council has an exciting lineup for its fifth annual Path for the Public Finances conference.

This year’s theme is “Ensuring debt sustainability in a post-Covid world”.

The conference will focus on the theme of fiscal policy in the era of high public debt and low interest rates that follows the outbreak of Covid-19.

The conference has two sessions: the first looks at fiscal policy of high debt conditional on current interest rates (debt sustainability analysis; what does it means for the fiscal rules, how should policymakers respond). The second takes a more “big picture” look at the sustainability of low interest rates given high public debt, ageing, financial implications and whether such pressures might influence monetary policy.

The conference takes place over 8th – 9th February 2021 from 2pm – 4pm both afternoons.

Speakers include Olivier Blanchard, Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Charles Wyplosz, Hélène Rey, Philip Lane, Antonio Fatás and Karolina Ekholm.

Full programme and Registration details are available at the Fiscal Council’s website:

Path for the Public Finances 2021: Ensuring debt sustainability in a post-Covid world

The under-representation of women in economics is an international issue which is also replicated in Ireland.

The Irish Economic Association (IEA) is currently developing the Irish Society for Women in Economics (ISWE) to help address this issue.

On Friday 19^th February from 9-11am we will hold our first ‘planning workshop’. The aim of this workshop is to learn from the experiences of similar initiatives in other countries and to discuss the substantive and organisational development of ISWE.

Anyone who is interested in being involved in ISWE is encouraged to attend. Both male and female economists working in the public or private sector on the island of Ireland are welcome. PhD students are particularly encouraged to attend.

The workshop will have 2 parts:

·       First, Dr. Leonora Risse, Chair of the Women in Economics Network (WEN) in Australia, will share her experiences of setting up and developing WEN since 2017 (https://esawen.org.au/).

·       Second, workshop participants will be divided into breakout rooms to brainstorm and discuss how best to develop ISWE in Ireland, covering topics such as the purpose of the society, its events and activities, its governance and funding structure. 

If you are interested in participating, please register in advance here:

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the workshop.

The 2020 Dublin Economics Workshop will be held as an online event with sessions taking place from Monday to Friday next week. Details of the topics, participants and registration can be found here.

Call for entrants

The Barrington Medal is awarded annually by the Council of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, under the auspices of the Barrington Trust (founded in 1836 by the bequest of John Barrington). The award, which includes both a silver medal and €1,000, is intended to recognise a promising new researcher in the economic and social sciences in Ireland. This will be the 172^nd anniversary of the lecture series and the recipient will be the 131^st Barrington Lecturer. Recipients in the past 35 years include:

Deirdre McHugh	Don Thornhill	George Lee	Alan Joyce	Daniel McCoy
Brian Lucey	Kevin H. O’Rourke	Siobhan Lucey	Mary Walsh	Philip Lane
Aidan Kane	Donal O’Neill	Peter Clinch	Colm Harmon	Ronnie O’Toole
Cathal O’Donoghue	Paul McNicholas	Mary Keeney	Liam Delaney	Martina Lawless
Cal Muckley	Orla Doyle	Yvonne McCarthy	Ronan Lyons	Mark McGovern
Rebecca Stuart	Karina Doorley	Daragh Clancy	Barra Roantree

The lecture should be based on a paper of not more than 7,500 words addressing a topic of relevance to economic or social policy and of current interest in Ireland. In treating the issue of economic or social policy, the paper may either report the findings of a statistical research study dealing with some aspect of the problem or deal with the underlying theoretical considerations involved, or preferably combine these two approaches. It should be written in a manner that makes it accessible to non-specialists in the area. More technical material may be included in an appendix. The paper is published in the Journal of the Society, so it should not have been published before, nor should it be published subsequently without the prior consent of the Council of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland. Candidates, who at the time of their submission must be not more than 35 years of age, should at least submit a detailed abstract of approximately 1,000 words on the proposed lecture, with preference being given to full papers. A short CV and the name of a proposer who is familiar with their work should also be submitted.

Entries will be accepted from 1^st June to 31^st August 2020 and should be sent to the Honorary Secretaries of the Society, via email, using the email address secretary@ssisi.ie.