Using micro data from the Quarterly National Household Survey we look at trends in Irish union membership from 2001-2006. There was a steep decline in union density. Decomposition analysis suggests that most of the decline is associated with a decline in the underlying probability of becoming a...

This paper examines the issue of whether harmonising taxes across the traded and nontraded sectors is desirable. Preferential treatment for the traded sector might be justified if either the output response of subsidies are higher in the traded sector or if the jobs generated in the traded...

We demonstrate that a disproportionately large fraction of migrants in Ireland enter sectors with regulated wages and working conditions. There is a substantial wage penalty associated with being a migrant that varies across migrant groups but disappears within regulated sectors.

Irish industrial policy explicitly encouraged job generation in certain “designated” areas via, amongst other things, preferential grant treatment, job targets and the building of advance factories in the IDA’s (Industrial Development Authority) regional industrial plans of 1973-1977 and...

This paper analyses the development and the determinants of backward linkages between electronics firms and domestic sub-suppliers in Ireland using data for 1982 to 1995. We find that, even when controlling for other firm and sector specific factors, foreign firms have lower linkages than Irish...

We investigate the relationship between outsourcing and profitability paying particular attention to the endogeneity of outsourcing. The empirical analysis uses unique plant level data for the electronics sector in Ireland. A particular feature of the data is that it records detailed information...