In postwar Europe aviation markets were controlled by bilateral agreements which confined the market to one airline per country. The airlines charged the same fares and divided the markets. Economists from Adam Smith to William Baumol recommend that governments should not ban new entrants or...

This paper analyses regional unemployment in Poland to explore whether unemployment outcomes reflect regional employment compositions and employment restructuring. It shows that the dynamics of regional labour demand in Poland have pushed unemployment inflows in a systematic way by changing the...

This paper looks at the issue of access to the arts in terms of the very unequal attendance at and audiences for the high arts by educational grouping. The meaning of equal access is analysed, recent data for two countries, namely the United States and Ireland, are examined and new evidence is...

Not only has development assistance overall been falling in volume terms, but the share of this ODA going to improving agriculture and nutrition in developing countries has also fallen. This paper investigates the reasons for the declining commitment of donors to these areas and whether this can...

This paper looks at the issue of the taxation of tobacco: why such taxes are imposed, the structure of these taxes in the EU and the issues to which they give rise. The effects of tobacco and the various measures used by government, including taxation, have been very much in the news in 1997....

This paper argues that the Irish economy is characterised by high levels of industrial concentration and weak competition. Competition rules introduced in 1991 and strenghthened in 1996 have had a significant effect in many markets, but those with the most extremely anti-competitive markets have...

Irish policy towards foreign direct investment has evolved since the 1950s as a strategy driven primarily by the use of fiscal incentives to enhance the profitability of locating in Ireland, with grants as required to achieve a particular bargaining advantage in competing against alternative...

This paper looks at the arguments for and against admission charges to national museums and provides some new evidence relating to the effects of charges. This debate is set in the context of the policy objective of access: the vast majority of the population do not attend national museums and...

Concern over budgetary costs has been the traditional driving force behind changes to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. While the recent MacSharry reform of this policy was more related to external pressures arising from the need to reach an agreement on agriculture in the GATT Uruguay Round,...

This paper attempts to apply some simple economic analysis to a single national cultural institution, namely the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. The first point made is that the Abbey operates within an active and fairly large theatre market in Dublin. Second, it is seen that the Abbey accounts for...