Effective, safe and efficient payment systems are important to facilitate real and financial transactions in advanced economies, though the choice of payment channel differs widely across Europe. Ireland has the second highest usage of cheques in Europe, the highest ATM withdrawal per capita and...

This paper examines the impact of the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease on the Irish economy using IMAGE, a CGE model of the Irish economy. The direct impacts on the tourism sector, the agricultural sector and on government finances are identified and their overall consequences for the...

The core database for IMAGE is the Irish Input-Output table from 1993, extended to a SAM (Social Accounting Matrix) to allow for the value added in the economy to accrue to one of the institutions in the economy. The model distinguishes 34 industries, the first eight of which relate to farm...

This working paper details the structure, code and solution methods for IMAGE, which is an acronym of "Irish Model of Agriculture, General Equilibrium". The IMAGE model is based on the widely known ORANI model (Dixon et al. 1982) of the Australian economy. The model has a theoretical structure...