Category: Uncategorized

Euro Crisis Roundtable

Chair: Kevin O’Rourke, Chichele Professor of Economic History, University of Oxford

Speakers: Richard Portes, Hans-Werner Sinn, Alan Taylor

Date: Thursday, 18th April
Time: 4pm
Venue: The J M Synge Theatre, Room 2039, Ground Floor Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin

This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. This lecture series is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The series will run from January to June. Admission is free and all are welcome.

A discussion of the future of the euro area with leading experts.  Hans-Werner Sinn is President of the CES-ifo Institute and one of Germany’s most prominent economists. Richard Portes is Professor at London Business School and President of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.  Alan Taylor is Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia and an expert in financial economics and economic history.

The Mody interview is available via this page.

The presentation file is here.

Speaker: Michael Burda (Humboldt University of Berlin)
Venue: The ESRI, Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2
Date: 25/04/2013, 4pm
Abstract available here
All welcome, no booking required.

Eurostat have published their first estimates of hourly labour costs in 2012.  Ireland had the tenth highest hourly labour costs in the EU27 (eighth in the EA17), though is fifth highest for ‘wage and salaries’ (third in the EA17) due to lower than average ‘other costs’, which is primarily employers’ social contributions.

In 2008, Irish labour costs were 112.5% of the EA17 average and in 2012 this had fallen to 104.0%.  Over the same five years, hourly labour costs in Ireland are estimated to have been largely unchanged (+0.8%) compared to rise of nearly 9% in the EA17.  Only Greece in the EA17 recorded a decline (-11%) over the five years and all of that occurred in the last two years.

For Ireland, non-wage costs are estimated to be 14% of hourly labour costs, compared to an EA17 average of 26%.  Only Luxembourg (13%) and Malta (8%) are lower.