The rapid increase in credit in an economy is now commonly perceived to be one of the leading indicators of financial instability. This view has been reinforced by the aftermath of the international financial crisis, which commenced in mid-2007. A key policy response has been to focus on the...

In Ireland, real property prices increased at an average of 12 per cent per annum from 1996 to 2002 with residential mortgage credit also increasing substantially. In this paper, the relationship between domestic bank credit and Irish house prices is examined empirically. Using a number of...

A real options model is used to explain why Irish farmers have been slow to switch from traditional farming to forestry despite numerous government incentives. In the theoretical model our results depend on profits from traditional farming relative to forestry. Under reasonable parameterisations...