Conference Announcement: Responding to the Crisis

Below are details of a conference on the Irish economic situation. Admission is free, but spaces are limited. Places can be booked by email to stefanie.feicke@ucd.ie, telephone (01) 7168335.

The conference website is here.

Responding to the Crisis

The UCD School of Economics, in association with the Dublin Economics Workshop, has arranged a half-day conference on the current economic crisis at the Royal College of Physicians, 6, Kildare St., Dublin 2, on January 12th. 2009.

Programme

14.15 Introductory Remarks

Rodney Thom (UCD)

14.20 Session 1: Fiscal Consolidation

Chair: John Fitz Gerald (ESRI)

Philip Lane (TCD): Fiscal Policy Options in the Euro Area

Ciaran O’Hagan (SocGen Paris): How Much Can Small Sovereigns Borrow?

Colm McCarthy (UCD): Expenditure Control and Fiscal Consolidation

Discussant: Karl Whelan (UCD)

Coffee at 15.45

16.00 Session 2: The Property Bubble and the Banking Crisis

Chair: Brendan Walsh (UCD)

Patrick Honohan (TCD): Resolving the Banking Crisis

Morgan Kelly (UCD): The Irish Property Bubble and its Consequences

Robbie Kelleher (Davy): Bank Solvency, Basle II and Accounting Standards

Discussant: Alan Ahearne (NUI Galway)

Conference concludes at 17.30.

NY Times on Ireland’s Housing Bust

Always interesting to get the outside view:   you can read it here.

Ten Years of the Euro

We now have a full decade of evidence concerning the impact of European monetary union on Ireland and the other member countries. While my view is that the euro has been beneficial in many ways, the next year or two will be highly revealing about the capacity of member countries to undertake economic adjustment while operating within the constraints of a common currency area.

The Economist has a nicely balanced article in its most recent edition: “Demonstrably Durable“, while John Hurley had an op-ed giving the local central bank view in the Irish Times on December 30th.

I gave my own view on the impact of the euro on Ireland in an article for the Sunday Business Post back in May: you can read it here.

I have also recently written a couple of academic survey papers on different dimensions of the euro:

“ EMU and Financial Integration,” IIIS Discussion Paper No. 272, December 2008. Prepared for the 5th Central Banking Conference of the European Central Bank.

“ The Macroeconomics of Financial Integration: A European Perspective,” IIIS Discussion Paper No. 265, October 2008. Prepared for the 5th Annual Research Conference of DG-ECFIN (European Commission).

Designing a Fiscal Response for the Crisis: The IMF View

The IMF has released a detailed study about the optimal design of fiscal policy to combat the crisis. A key feature of this report is that it accepts that the appropriate fiscal response varies across countries. In particular, this extract from an online interview with two of the report’s authors (Olivier Blanchard and Carlo Cottarelli) is relevant to the Irish situation:

Cottarelli: That said, it is critical that this fiscal stimulus isn’t seen by markets as undermining medium-term fiscal sustainability. That would be counterproductive, including in its effects on demand today. Indeed, we’ve said that not all countries can afford a fiscal expansion.

How the stimulus package is designed is also key: fiscal measures should be reversible, and governments may want to precommit to unwinding some of the policies. Also, any stimulus should be formulated within a robust medium-term fiscal framework, which could be made more credible by strengthening independent oversight of fiscal policy.

50 Herbert Hoovers and EMU

Is this analysis by Paul Krugman a sign of debates to come in Europe?

I don’t particularly like the political implications, but if states like Ireland can’t use fiscal policy at a time like this, then the case for fiscal centralisation for EMU members has just gotten a lot stronger, especially from a small country perspective.