In August, the RBA and BIS co-organised a conference on this topic, which featured some interesting papers – downloads are here.
The latest BIS QR is here. Includes articles on ” Do debt service costs affect macroeconomic and financial stability?” and “Have public bailouts made banks’ loan books safer”
Last week I spoke in Iceland (.pdf of slides) about the similarities and differences between our two countries.
Both countries had experienced booms caused by inflows of cheap credit, and both had experienced societal upheaval as a result of the inevitable crash. Iceland differed sharply from Ireland in its approach to resolving the crisis. Where we are currently floundering, praying for a deal on our banking debt from Brussels, Iceland is moving on, with a set of relatively clean bank balance sheets, a falling unemployment rate, an increase in economic output, and a national sense that the economy and the society is healing.
What can we learn from the Icelandic experience? Should we even compare ourselves to them? I think there are many lessons to learn, but you have to look a bit beyond the numbers.
I am not sure that these findings are surprising, but quantifying these effects is very useful. It also seems worth mentioning that Italy has just introduced a system of involving non-Italians in their academic appointments committees. And that it is probably not surprising that the UK, which has a competitive model, is so successful when it comes to ERC grants and other quantitative measures of academic success.
The Dublin Economics Workshop holds its annual Economic Policy Conference on October 12 to 14 next at the Ardilaun House Hotel in Galway. Details of the programme and booking details are at dublineconomics.com. Sarah Condon does all the work, sarah@dublineconomics.com
The keynote speakers are David Laidler, from the University of Western Ontario, and Jerry Dwyer from the Atlanta Fed. David taught me monetary economics 40 years ago and claims to be too old for jet-lag! I am thrilled that David is coming to Ireland again in October. David Laidler has forgotten more about monetary economics than the rest of us are likely to learn, however long we survive. Jerry Dwyer gave a terrific paper at a conference in Greece a few months ago and has promised to update it.
25 Irish economists, young and old, will aso be giving papers, including two regular commenters from this blog, Michael Hennigan and Paul Hunt
All are welcome at DEW 35 in Galway