This paper analyzes the role of tax policy in the transformation of the Irish economy from the 1980s to the 1990s. Details are provided of the marked underperformance of the economy in the 1980s, evidenced by rising unemployment, falling employment, stagnant living standards, and a looming...

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...