Commuting In Ireland: An Analysis of Inter-County Commuting Flows. ESRI WP144(?). April 2002

Commuting has become a much discussed policy issue in Ireland, as a consequence of a significant increase in the number of commuters and car users and the resulting increase in congestion. Despite this interest in commuting there has been little research on the causes of the increase in commuting and the pattern of commuting. This paper proposes a simple framework which links the decision of individuals to commute with the housing market, the labour market and commuting costs. Furthermore this paper investigates the empirical validity of the main predictions of this simple framework using a new data set on inter county commuting flows. The findings of the empirical analysis offer support for the analytical framework. Thus, relative wages and relative house prices between counties are important factors in determining commuting choice

Ireland's international trade and transport connections. ESRI WP573, October 2017

This paper looks at the transport patterns of Irish international trade. In particular, we examine how trade flows in weight differ from those measured by value and the implications that this has for transport mode and cost. In an environment of uncertainty relating to the impact of Brexit, the much larger share of the UK in total Irish export volumes (tonnages) compared to values signals possible significant impacts on transport and also on costs if increased customs procedures are introduced. We also look at the use of the UK as a land-bridge for Irish trade further afield, finding that a considerable percentage of Irish trade uses this transport option

Understanding Sexual Prejudice: The Role of Political Ideology and Strategic Essentialism

Despite the increased visibility and acceptance of the LGBTQ community, sexual minorities continue to face prejudice and discrimination in many domains. Past research has shown that this prejudice is more prevalent among those holding conservative political views. In two studies, we merge strategic essentialism and motivated ideology theoretical perspectives to empirically investigate the link between political orientation and sexual prejudice. More specifically, we examine how conservatives strategically use different forms of essentialism to support their views of gay individuals and their reactions to messages aimed at changing essentializing beliefs. In Study 1 (N = 220), we demonstrate that conservatives endorse social essentialism (i.e. the belief that gay and straight people are fundamentally different from each other) more than liberals do. In turn, they blame gay individuals more for their sexual orientation and show more prejudice towards them. At the same time, conservatives endorse trait essentialism (i.e. the belief that sexual orientation is a fixed attribute that cannot be changed) less than liberals do, which in turn predicts greater levels of blame and prejudice for conservatives relative to liberals. In Study 2 (N = 217), we additionally show that conservatives, but not liberals, are resistant to messages aimed at increasing trait essentialism and reducing prejudice toward sexual minorities. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings

Think Manager–Think Parent? Investigating the fatherhood advantage and the motherhood penalty using the Think Manager–Think Male paradigm

Men remain overrepresented in leadership positions, due in part to a think manager–think male (TMTM) association whereby stereotypes of men are more similar to stereotypes of manager than are stereotypes of women. Building on research into the motherhood penalty and fatherhood advantage, we extend Schein's TMTM paradigm to investigate whether parenthood exacerbates the phenomenon. In Study 1 (N = 326), we find clear support for a fatherhood advantage, such that fathers are described as more similar to managers compared to either men in general, women in general, or to mothers. We did not find evidence for a motherhood penalty. Indeed, mothers, compared to women in general, were seen as more similar to managers (a motherhood advantage within women), while relative to fathers, mothers were seen as less similar to managers, thus, a gender penalty remained within parenthood. We replicate these findings in a preregistered Study 2 (N = 561), and further show that patterns are similar for ideal managers (prescriptive manager stereotypes, Study 1) and leaders more generally (Study 2). Taken together, the results suggest that gender and managerial stereotypes do not reveal a simple fatherhood advantage and motherhood penalty. Rather, stereotypes of parenthood may provide benefits for both mothers and fathers—suggestive of a parenthood advantage, at least in terms of stereotype content

Microscopic nanomechanical dissipation in gallium arsenide resonators

We report on a systematic study of nanomechanical dissipation in high-frequency (approximatively 300 MHz) gallium arsenide optomechanical disk resonators, in conditions where clamping and fluidic losses are negligible. Phonon-phonon interactions are shown to contribute with a loss background fading away at cryogenic temperatures (3 K). Atomic layer deposition of alumina at the surface modifies the quality factor of resonators, pointing towards the importance of surface dissipation. The temperature evolution is accurately fitted by two-level systems models, showing that nanomechanical dissipation in gallium arsenide resonators directly connects to their microscopic properties. Two-level systems, notably at surfaces, appear to rule the damping and fluctuations of such high-quality crystalline nanomechanical devices, at all temperatures from 3 to 300K

The scale of “fuel tourism” across the Irish border. ESRI Research Bulletin, 2018/01

Mainly due to differing tax rates, the retail prices of motor fuels in the Republic of Ireland are generally lower than in Northern Ireland. This leads to “fuel tourism”, whereby many Northern Ireland consumers buy fuel in the south. It would be useful to know how much fuel is sold to these cross-border consumers. Fuel sales make an important contribution to tax revenues, and a shift in relative tax rates across the border could lead to significant changes in tax receipts arising from cross-border sales. Also, European climate policy makes each country responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions from fuels sold to retail customers within its borders, regardless of where the fuel is ultimately used or whether the user resides abroad. The level of cross-border fuel sales thus has implications for the policies used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport. This research estimates the quantity of petrol and diesel fuel sold by forecourt retailers (i.e. petrol stations) in the Republic of Ireland to consumers in Northern Ireland during the 2013-2015 period. Statistical methods are applied to monthly data on fuels sales by individual retailers in the border counties. The key assumption is that petrol stations nearer to the border should enjoy higher cross-border sales than otherwise similar petrol stations that are further away. Analysing the geographical pattern of sales allows us to infer how much fuel is purchased by customers from Northern Ireland

ESTABLISHING IDENTITY OF NON-EU NATIONALS IN IRISH MIGRATION PROCESSES. ESRI RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 70 JANUARY 2018

This report takes a first step towards providing consistent projections for key variables at the regional and county level and provides projections for a number of these variables up to 2040. This work is an important input for the production of the National Planning Framework (NPF), which will replace the National Spatial Strategy (NSS). The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government published a paper entitled Issues and Choices as part of the consultation process on the National Planning Framework (see Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government, 2017). The Issues and Choices paper sets out the main issues to be addressed by the NPF and posed a series of question in relation to the future spatial patterns on which the Department of Housing and Planning sought submissions.3 The projections set out in Chapters 4 and 5 of this paper provide an important context in that they identify the likely development patterns under a ‘current trends’ scenario, where no effort is made to change the patterns of development that have been observed in the past. As the development of a fully specified integrated regional model for Ireland is hampered by data gaps the approach used here is to consider those variables for which data are available and which help inform the planning process. These include population, employment and the location of jobs. Trends in these variables have important implications, for example, for the number and location of new housing units required, the type and amount of new infrastructure required, commuting patterns and the resulting transport requirements etc., all of which are central to efficient planning. Given these limitations it is also beyond the scope to explicitly incorporate the interaction with Northern Ireland in the model. These are particularly important for Donegal, but are also relevant for other Border counties. It is also beyond the scope of this report to consider the potential impact of Brexit at the regional level. It should however be noted that early research by Morgenroth (2017) shows that Brexit is likely to have regionally differentiated effects and that a hard Brexit could hit counties Cavan and Monaghan particularly hard due to the importance of the agri-food sector in these counties

360-degree Video Stitching for Dual-fisheye Lens Cameras Based On Rigid Moving Least Squares

Dual-fisheye lens cameras are becoming popular for 360-degree video capture, especially for User-generated content (UGC), since they are affordable and portable. Images generated by the dual-fisheye cameras have limited overlap and hence require non-conventional stitching techniques to produce high-quality 360x180-degree panoramas. This paper introduces a novel method to align these images using interpolation grids based on rigid moving least squares. Furthermore, jitter is the critical issue arising when one applies the image-based stitching algorithms to video. It stems from the unconstrained movement of stitching boundary from one frame to another. Therefore, we also propose a new algorithm to maintain the temporal coherence of stitching boundary to provide jitter-free 360-degree videos. Results show that the method proposed in this paper can produce higher quality stitched images and videos than prior work.Comment: Preprint versio

VAT revenue elasticities: an analytical approach. ESRI WP596, September 2018

In this paper we construct analytical estimates of the elasticity of VAT revenue with respect to underlying gross income and expenditure for the household sector in Ireland. The responsiveness of VAT revenue to changes in gross income steadily increased up to the late 2000s as marginal income tax rates fell. The introduction of the income levy and the doubling of the health levy resulted in a reduction in the VAT elasticity, as higher income tax rates also reduced the disposable income available for expenditure. This spill-over effect highlights the importance of judging the broader implications of tax policy. It also suggests that policymakers during any subsequent fiscal crisis should be cautious when choosing the composition of tax adjustments, as there is a clear trade-off to be made. The VAT revenue elasticity is lower for Ireland than estimates for the UK, New Zealand and Australia, possibly reflecting the greater progressivity of the Irish income tax system compared to other OECD countries

Microwave Electronics

Contains reports on two research projects