In the 1985 film ‘Brewster’s Millions’, Montgomery Brewster is tasked with spending a vast fortune within a month, and have nothing to show for it at the end. He succeeds, though in the process learns value of money and some life lessons. Ireland is at risk of squandering a far larger fortune, without learning anything from the process.

When people are asked how to spend €14 billion, they general think of ‘on what’. However, the mechanisms through which money is spent, and controls in place, are just as important in deciding ‘how’ to spend money. Ireland needs a new system for procurement and investing in infrastructure.

Rest of blog available here: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/news/opinion-how-should-ireland-spend-14-billion.html

Public support should end

Blockchain is old hat. In 1991 blockchain was first proposed by two scientists at Bell Labs, long enough for the technology to mature and stand on its own feet. However, €347 million of EU funding has been approved to promote blockchain…

Rest of blog available here: https://www.tasc.ie/blog/2023/05/30/blockchain-is-a-32yearold-gimmick/

Ireland has received bumper corporation tax revenue over the past decade, something which has puzzled many economists.

Rest of blog available here: https://www.tasc.ie/blog/2022/09/28/irelands-corporation-tax-revenue-is-set-for-a-larg/

In Ireland, the price level of consumer goods and services are 40% above the EU average. Why is this the case?

Our high prices are almost entirely due to the high cost of services (which includes renting a home) rather than goods (figure below). The price of goods in Ireland is largely in line with other European countries, with the exception of alcohol and tobacco. Since 2003, goods prices have improved …

(Click here to read the rest of the blog: https://www.tasc.ie/blog/2022/06/30/why-is-ireland-such-a-highcost-country/)

Last week, a friend felt somewhat flushed and wondered if it was a fever due to COVID-19 or simply the unusually warm weather outside. Fortunately, a PCR test showed he was free of COVID-19. At the same time the Irish economy has been overheating with many pointing to outside causes. However, a closer examination shows the Irish economy is not as lucky…

Blog available here: https://www.tasc.ie/blog/2022/01/24/global-inflation-masks-homegrown-problems/

Just as giving the wrong medicine can harm a patient, taking the wrong economic measures can worsen the effects of the current recession. Already a growing number of economists, such as Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf, are showing scepticism at government plans to boost consumer spending through measures such as through VAT cuts…

Opinion piece I wrote for The Irish Times available here.

A blog I wrote for Tasc’s Progressive Economy on measuring the number of digital platform workers can be found here.

by Rory O’Farrell, Slovenia Desk, OECD Economics Department Slovenia would do well if its economy performed as well as its ski-jumpers. In 2015, Slovenian Peter Prevc became the first ski-jumper in history to jump 250 metres. As impressive has been his ability to land successfully, being among the few jumpers to receive a perfect 20 […]

via The Slovenian economy is bouncing back — OECD ECOSCOPE

In many ways the recession hit young men hardest. Employment in the male dominated construction sector collapsed, while employment in the more female public sector was relatively stable. As a result young men were most likely to emigrate.

The result has been the  ratio of men to women (the sex-ratio) for those aged 25-34 fell to the lowest level since records began. If this age group were in a nightclub for every 100 women, there would be only 93 men.

While this may not seem dramatic, the figure is even more depressing for single women hoping to be in a relationship with a man*. Though there are no good statistics for the fraction of people that are in a relationship, lets suppose 80% of women aged 25-34 are in a relationship, leaving 20 single women in our nightclub. However, that leaves only 13 single guys (a sex ratio of .65). Therefore Ireland’s plunge in the sex-ratio can have a far larger impact than may first appear.

*For the sake of simplicity I’m pretending all the gay people are in the George for the night.