In order to provide a home for some longer posts and associated papers by contributors, there is now a new numbered series Irish Economy Notes which can be found here (and via the blogroll on the right panel of this site). The first batch includes contributions by Greg Connor, Colm McCarthy and myself.
Category: Uncategorized
In response to a recent paper that was somewhat bullish about the benefits of the European employment model, Bryan Caplan proposes the following bet. It has since been taken up by John Quiggin.
“I’m going to offer the following bet to the authors of the CEPR report:
The average European unemployment rate for 2009-2018 (i.e., the next decade) will be at least 1% higher than U.S. unemployment rate. The bet will be resolved when Eurostat releases its final numbers for 2018.
I’m happy to bet each of the three authors $100 at even odds. Will they accept?
P.S. By 1% I of course meant 1 percentage-point.”
According to Brian Cowen, “most economists now say that the Government’s strategy for the public finances is the right one”.
What a cheek.
Yes, most economists — indeed practically all economists — agree that the Government has to do everything possible to avoid State bankruptcy, and that the Government is now taking required action on the public finances.
However, the fact that the Government is cutting expenditure and raising taxes as severely as it now has to, thus lowering aggregate demand and worsening unemployment at the worst possible time imaginable (we can argue about the size of this effect, but its sign is in no doubt) is a damning indictment of Fianna Fáil/PD fiscal policy over the past few years.
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has published the results of its investigation into the pork dioxin crisis in Ireland last December. This crisis was caused by contaminated oil being used in a food waste recycling plant in Co. Wexford resulting in elevated levels of dioxin above the EU legal maximum in some pork products. Pigs on those farms which had been fed contaminated feed were slaughtered and all Irish pork products produced since 1 September were recalled from the home and export markets. The Joint Committee report describes how the contamination occurred and identifies a number of weaknesses in the food safety control system. However, the broader question of who should pay for food safety is left unexamined.
A new NBER paper asks why universities reward faculty on the basis of research productivity despite making most of their money from teaching. One theory is that top researchers being located in an institution increases the signalling value of the degrees awarded in the Institution. Another is that screening faculty on the basis of good teaching is very difficult and that screening them on the basis of research is more feasible and that good researchers are likely to be good teachers and to transmit knowledge at a much higher level than faculty who are not research active. A question that the paper leaves open but is an important one is what is best for students and society in terms of the allocation of university budgets. Should we be focusing on getting more teaching staff and having them spend more time in the lecture hall and classroom or more on attracting top research staff to improve the prestige of institutions and facilitate students being influenced by top researchers?