Latest Central Bank Quarterly Bulletin

The Irish Central Bank is forecasting strong growth in Ireland of about 2% in GDP in the latest quarterly bulletin (.pdf). Pages 20 and 21 should interest readers of this blog. Thomas Conefrey and Suzanne Linehan dig into the employment growth numbers in a useful box-out. As usual the report is a chart fest, which is great for the wonky folk who frequent this site, but this one caught my eye. In the figure below you’re looking at household debt relative to disposable income, but also relative to total assets in the household sector.

What is remarkable is the scale of the problem relative to other developed countries. Irish debt to disposable income is about 196%, UK debt to disposable income is about 140%, US is about 120%. Here’s a really useful paper (.pdf) by Clare Lebartz looking at the distribution of household debt by income distribution which goes into the mechanics of this buildup a bit more.

The other sharp change is the brown line, driven by an increase in household assets mainly.

Domestic demand, credit flows, and employment

In a speech largely saying nothing, Mario Draghi today described how domestic demand, and absence of reforms are risks to growth. Reforms, of course, could mean anything at all, and they are the Eurocrat catch-all for ‘we don’t know’, but domestic demand is something we can measure, and it’s something the ESRI have worked a lot on recently (.pdf). Your average undergraduate knows about the relationship between employment and domestic demand, and should also be aware that credit conditions matter for the growth of the real economy.

If we look at the Irish economy, in levels indexed to Q1, 2007, the chart below shows total domestic demand and employment on the left hand axis, which I start at 60 to pull out the difference between them a bit, and, measured on the right hand axis, the bar chart shows the flow of credit advanced when you exclude financial intermediation and property.

On the last reading domestic demand is about 21% down from Q1, 2007, while employment is about 15% down from the peak in early 2008. The annual change in the employment series from Q42012 to Q42013 is about 3%, while the annual change in demand is almost 0%.

Credit advanced meanwhile is, unsurprisingly, negative, relative to Q1 2007, from Q3 2010 onwards.

Economist vacancy at TILDA

Details here.

Spring 2014 Issue of ESR

Vol 45, No 1, Spring (2014): with Policy Papers from ‘Future Directions of the Irish Economy’ Conference, 10 January 2014

Table of Contents

Articles

The Influence of Family Structure on Child Outcomes: Evidence for Ireland PDF
Carmel Hannan, Brendan Halpin 1-24
Socio-economic Inequalities in Child Health in Ireland PDF
Anne Nolan, Richard Layte 25-64
Minority Status, Social Welfare Status and their Association with Child Participation in Sporting, Cultural and Community Activities PDF
Bryan Coughlan, Edel Doherty, Ciaran O’Neill, Brian E. McGuire 65-85

Policy Section Articles

Ireland’s Medium-Term Growth Prospects: a Phoenix Rising? PDF
Nicholas Crafts 87-112
Ireland’s Banking System – Looking Forward PDF
Thorsten Beck 113-134
Ireland’s Fiscal Framework: Options for the Future PDF
George Kopits 135-158

Rebranding Trinity College Dublin

April the first seems like as good a day as any to open a thread on the recent TCD rebranding initiative, which according to Brian Lucey cost the cash-strapped university around €100,000. A few questions arise:

Has it occurred to TCD that it actually has a very strong brand (how I hate that word), and that this may in fact be the reason that it does reasonably well in reputation-based surveys?

Isn’t the new shield just a little bit chintzy, and was the old one not much nicer?

If they are going to make a big deal about the book in the new crest not necessarily being the Bible of the old one, is there not a problem with the name of the College itself (my kids pointed that one out before collapsing in a fit of giggles)?

Isn’t the whole idea of “rebranding” a university just a little bit second division, and does this exercise not risk damaging the reputation of the institution?

Is there any chance that having spent €100,000 on the exercise, the promised staff consultations will be any more than a box-ticking exercise?