Welfare states are said to have evolved over the course of the past twenty years towards a ‘social investment’ model of welfare, characterised by a focus on equality of opportunity and upward social mobility combined with greater emphasis on individual responsibility. More or less...

In light of widespread agreement that poverty and social exclusion should be understood as multidimensional phenomenon, in this paper we explore the practical implications of such an understanding in relation to widely employed indicators of such phenomena in Ireland. One persistent critique of...

This paper describes the causes and consequences of Ireland's economic crisis in the context of the policy solution implemented to contain that crisis: protracted fiscal austerity. I describe the causes of the recent crisis in Ireland, and look at the logic of austerity with a simple model. I...

The African Great Lakes Region (GLR) has witnessed some of the most intense violence and protracted conflict of the last half-century. There has been spiralling and sometimes over-lapping conflict in Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (hereinafter Zone 1 conflict...

The most used regression model with binary dependent variable is the logistic regression model. When the dependent variable represents a rare event, the logistic regression model shows relevant drawbacks. In order to overcome these drawbacks we propose the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV)...

We present a model of partnership formation based on two discrete character traits. There are two classes of individual. Each individual observes a sequence of potential partners from the other class. The traits are referred to as attractiveness and character, respectively. All individuals...

The EU-SILC 2005 wave includes a special module on inter-generational transmission of poverty. In addition to the standard data relating to income and material deprivation, the information relating to parental background and childhood circumstances was collected for all household members or...

New theoretical approaches to the state have posed challenges for the comparative analysis of the organizational features of states. The analysis of state bodies and state agencies has largely been confined to the sub-discipline of public administration, and has been resistant to the systematic...

We investigate the propogation of contagion through banks' balance sheets in a two-country model. We simulate an increase in non-performing loans in one bank, and study the effects on other banks and the macro economy of each country. We show that credit crunches destabilize each economy in the...

The paper chronicles the evolution of financial regulation in Ireland, with particular attention given to the roles, responsibilities and actions of those authorities responsible for maintaining financial stability. It examines the role of financial regulation during the property bubble, in...