At The Margin

This is a bumper episode this week. I am joined by Dr. Graham Brownlow (Queen's University Belfast) to discuss the Northern Irish Economy.

We go through the development of the Northern Irish economy throughout the 20th Century and a little bit before. Graham's expert knowledge really gives us a depth of understanding that I have not heard elsewhere.

Indeed, I learned a lot from this discussion. Growing up in Longford we hear a lot about the politics of Northern Ireland but very little about the economy. Of course politics has influenced the economy and Graham talks about that but not always in the ways that you would expect.

One such example is the story of how the DeLorean car from Back to the Future came to be manufactured just outside Belfast. It’s a fascinating story and we go through that in great detail.

Enjoy! 

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This week we have a departure from the usual COVID related topics. In this episode I am joined by Jonathan Ruane, a Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and adjunct at TCD.

Jonathan and I discuss the impact Artificial intelligence may have on the global economy. We go through the disruptive technologies of AI and machine learning, introduce them for those unfamiliar and discuss how these technologies may develop. This is something I find fascinating myself as projections range from something akin to science fiction right up to something similar to disruptive technologies that we have seen already such as the Model T or the internet.

We delve into how these technologies might affect the economy and even veer off into related discussions about a just transition and universal basic income.

This episode was recorded many months ago in a pre-COVID world. I met Jonathan in Dublin over the Christmas break before social distancing was part of our vocabulary. 

If you enjoyed this or any other episode, please give us a rating on apple podcasts. You can scroll down now while reading and hit five stars if you have an iPhone. Reviews are really heavily weighted on the apple chart algorithm I’ve come to realise - we always seem to climb the charts when we get a few reviews! So thanks to all who have given us five stars to date. It really means a lot. 

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On this episode I am joined by Dr. Orla Doyle. Orla is Associate Professor at the UCD School of Economics and a Research Fellow at the Geary Institute at UCD. Orla specialises in the economics of human development, particularly on evaluating the effectiveness of early childhood interventions.

Orla has led an exciting research project entitled 'Preparing for life', which evaluates the effectiveness of early childhood intervention programmes. We discuss this programme and Orla offers a few tips for any parents out there, arising from her work.

We discuss the impact that the recession has had on health and well-being, through the lens of a study on maternal health. While there are negative effects, as one would expect, we find some surprising positive effects. There are also a few lessons to be learned when it comes to the current COVID19 crisis and Orla takes us through those.

Increasing inequality is something we think about a lot nowadays, even before covid19 but increasing educational inequality was something that was not on my radar. Orla also has done some important writing in relation to this and takes us through some issues we need to plan for when fighting covid19.

Finally, to borrow the famous Monty Python phrase, we wrap up with something completely different when Orla takes us through her study of the impact terrorism may have on well being.

Please subscribe on your podcast app and tell your friends. If you like the show, give us a shout out on twitter or leave a 5* review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks!

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I am joined today by Dr. Ronan Lyons to speak about the Irish Property market. Ronan is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, with research interests in housing markets, urban economics, and economic history. You may also know Ronan from his work with Daft, where he is responsible for many of their pieces of economic analysis.

Ronan brings us through the important factors to bear in mind when thinking about Irish property markets, we discuss how these issues have affected the Irish market over the past 20 years. We touch on social housing, Airbnb, working from home and of course, COVID19. Ronan also gives us some sage advice on how to approach home buying. 

If you enjoy this discussion, please give us a shout out on Twitter @IrishEconPod. If you are reading this on an iPhone, a 5-star review would mean a lot!

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We continue the COVID-19 theme this week. Having explored the impacts from various academic angles we now explore the impact from an industry perspective. This is important insight as we have heard a lot of numbers over the last few weeks but less attention has been paid on discussing the problems driving these figures.

Gerard Brady, chief economist with IBEC, explains how the crisis manifests itself at the industry level and outlines some of the policy levers that would help most from their perspective. Among the measures discussed, Gerard emphasizes the importance of liquidity supports to keep otherwise good businesses afloat so that the economy is ready to go once restrictions are lifted.

It's a really interesting chat and a little bit eye-opening to hear the extent and depth of the impact.

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We have an episode of a slightly different focus today, where we view the EU decision-making from a political science perspective.

Speaking to you on the 7th of April, it is clear that EU intervention will be of central importance to kickstarting the European economy once the COVID19 pandemic dies down. Indeed, today is a day when the Eurogroup meet to discuss their COVID19 response.

However, the nature and design of any agreed-upon economic measures are predicated on the political relationships that exist in Europe, political relationships that have evolved over a financial crisis, a drawn-out Brexit negotiation and now a COVID19 crisis.

To help understand the nature of these relationships, and the bearing they might have on the nature of the economic decisions that will be made today and further into the COVID19 crisis, I am delighted to be joined by Prof. Brigid Laffan of the European University Institute in Florence.

Prof. Laffan is a leading thinker when it comes to the dynamics of European integration, Brexit and EU governance and has written extensively on the evolving nature of relations within the EU. To get the full context of EU decision-making, we discuss her work on the 2008 financial crisis and Brexit before turning to the COVID-19 response. We then discuss the implications for the future of the EU and Brexit negotiations.

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On this bonus episode, I am joined by Linda Thunstrom and Stephen Newbold who are Assistant Professors at the University of Wyoming. Along with co-authors, they produced a very interesting paper quantifying the costs and benefits of social distancing. We take a deep-dive into this paper which is a very timely piece of work.

Given the time constraints, Stephen and Linda produce a fairly robust argument in favour of social distancing. This provides an evidence base to reassure us that even the hard-nosed economists agree that the current course of action is correct. 

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In this episode I am joined by Prof. Michael McMahon of the University of Oxford. Prof. McMahon is also a member of Ireland’s Fiscal Advisory Council. We had arranged this discussion some time ago before the COVID19 outbreak, with the original plan to cover the fiscal and monetary tools used to manage the economy. However, given recent developments we also discuss the response to COVID-19 (this episode was recorded on 30th of March 2020).

Hopefully we can fill in the gaps when it comes to understanding the various policy levers before going on to discuss their role in managing the current crisis.

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Welcome to the Christmas Special part 2. Don't forget to check out part one if you haven't already.

This is another fun chat about a very important topic – is Christmas really coming earlier every year? This is strictly speaking a statistics question but I think its one listeners of the podcast will find very interesting. I am joined by Nathan Cunningham, statistician and data scientist, who has just completed his PhD in statistics at Warwick University. In his spare time, Nathan uses the complicated statistical methods from his day job to shed some light on some of life's often overlooked, but nonetheless important, questions.

We discuss Nathan's study, which has received a lot of media attention in recent years (especially around the festive period). We discuss the methods involved and whether or not Nathan finds that Christmas is coming earlier or whether it is all in our imagination. There is something here for everyone – the data nerds will love to hear how he answers the question and, if you’re like me, you’ll also be dying to hear whether there is indeed a creep to the festive start time.

We touch on some of the other topics Nathan has covered in his spare time, including the point at which the 'golden age' of the Simpsons ended. I highly recommend checking out Nathan's blog at http://www.nathancunn.com.

If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review on itunes and tag us on Twitter or Instagram @IrishEconPod! Thanks for all the support and I hope you have a very Happy Christmas!

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Christmas special part 1: The Economics of Christmas

This is the first part of our two-part Christmas special. Given the time of year, this is a lighter take on economics. In this episode, I am joined by Shane Doherty to have a chat about the economics of Christmas. Shane is not an economist but an enquiring mind when it comes to economics so a good guy to ask the tough questions surrounding Christmas.

We challenge the conventional wisdom that Christmas is important for the economy - it is, given our current spending pattern - but would we spend as much if we didn't have Christmas? We discuss this and some of the pros and cons associated with the bump in spending during the festive season.

We discuss the economics of giving presents and use some economic rationale to advise on a welfare-maximising gift-giving strategy. We even take a quick detour to discuss the economics of weddings!

I hope you enjoy listening. Tag us @IrishEconPod on twitter, facebook or instagram if you get a chance and leave a review on iTunes.

I hope you all have a very Happy Christmas!

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