In Irish manufacturing, the foreign sector accounts for about one half of employment and some 60 per cent of gross output. The Irish experience therefore provides us with a textbook case study of the effects on an EU host economy of export-oriented FDI. We explore in this paper the structural...

This paper models the relationship between the union and its membership as a Principal Agent problem. The union sets wages subject to a labour demand curve. The level of wages is determined by union effort. The union negotiates as a monopoly union. Its utility is a risk averse function of its...

This paper considers the problem of comparing real incomes across countries. The available methods are reviewed and their performance is compared using the raw data underlying the Penn World Table.

This has demonstrated the rationale for allowing for winners and losers contingent valuation. In addition, it has shown how appropriate measures of welfare gains as well as loses can be elicited in dichotomous choice contingent valuation.

The objective of this study is to compare the effects on earnings across a pectrum of studies. Research on the topic has been very limited up to the 1990s, but the emergence of a number of comprehensive data sets has allowed considerable research into the topic. A cross paper comparison of the...

This paper analyses levels of low literacy across twelve countries using the International Adult Literacy Survey. We go beyond existing work that looks at the proportions below certain critical level of literacy. Using methods developed for the measurement of poverty we calculate measures of...

This paper analyses the welfare implication for a developing country of using union legalisation as a policy instrument to attract inwards foreign direct investment. While its presence may discourage a foreign multinational (MNE) from locating in the host country, unionisation is an important...

Child benefit is a universal payment to all households with children in Ireland. Unlike other transfers however it is paid to the mother. This paper analyses expenditure patterns out of this transfer payment and compares them to expenditure patterns from other sources of income using Irish...

This paper uses firm-level production data for 1987 and 1993, disaggregated by industry and country, to inspect the geographical diversification of the leading firms in the EU.

This paper tries to be the first step in a systematic comparison of economic growth in Denmark and Ireland between 1870 and 1939. Section 2 ofthis paper sets the scene by discussing broader trends of living standards and agricultural productivity. Section 3 outlines the developments in the...