Exploring Affordability in the Irish Housing Market. ESRI WP593, June 2018

This paper examines housing affordability in Ireland by looking at the distribution of housing costs across households. Using microdata from the SILC survey over the period 2005-2015, the contribution of this paper is threefold. First, the paper considers the trends in the cost of housing in Ireland across groups of households split by age, region, household structure, and their position in the income distribution. Second, we apply selected international housing affordability definitions and explore the share, and composition, of households in Ireland that would be captured by these definitions. We do not find evidence of universal affordability difficulties in the Irish market. However, certain groups do face acute affordability challenges. Third, working towards a definition of housing cost affordability for use in Irish policy discussions, we provide some guidance as to what such a definition could look like

The Troubles: Northern Irish Political Contention from Sunningdale to the Good Friday Agreement

This paper looks to answer the question: Can the contentious politics thesis of Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly explain why the Good Friday Agreement (1998) (GFA) successfully produced a lasting peace in Northern Ireland, when the Sunningdale (1973) and the Anglo-Irish (1985) agreements failed to do so? I set out to study the buildup and aftermath of each agreement and subsequently examine each through the lens of the contentious politics thesis, searching for causal mechanisms and processes that explain the success of the GFA. The purpose of the contentious politics thesis is not to examine various forms of contention (i.e. coups, civil wars, revolutions) one by one and make broad generalizations for each of them. Quite the opposite; the goal is to “identify parallels in the ways that apparently disparate forms of contention work, and show how their differences result from varying combinations and sequences of mechanisms in contrasting regime environments” (Tilly & Tarrow, 2007). In place of the “static, single-actor models (including their own) that have prevailed in the field of contentious politics,” McAdam, Tarrrow, and Tilly identify causal mechanisms and processes that recur across a wide-range of contentious politics and “shift the focus of analysis to dynamic interaction.” The main method I used for this work was researching books and articles written on the subject. This includes primary source documents, in particular the memoirs of people participating in the events discussed and newspaper articles published at the time. The books and articles generally fell into two categories: the historical record and material related to the contentious politics thesis. McAdam, Tilly, and Tarrow’s Dynamics of Contention and Tilly and Tarrow’s Contentious Politics were essential for the identification of the causal mechanisms and processes. Paul Dixon’s Northern Ireland: The Politics of War and Peace provided me with a highly accessible and detailed history of the “Troubles.” With the large amount of information available on Northern Ireland, combined with the works of McAdam, Tilly, and Tarrow, research was the best and most appropriate method for completing my Capstone Project. I argue that the contentious politics thesis furthers our understanding of the triumphs and failures of each agreement and helps explain why it took three decades to broker a lasting peace. As I demonstrate, recognizing the causal mechanisms and processes improves our comprehension of how each agreement came into existence and why the GFA was the only one to experience long-term success. The object shift by the nationalist community, the co-optation of Sinn Féin into the peace talks, and the identity shift by the Republic of Ireland are some examples of the causal mechanisms and processes that distinguished the GFA from Sunningdale and the Anglo-Irish Agreement. I also apply the thesis to the Bosnian War (1992-95) to exemplify how it allows us to identify causal mechanisms and processes in both Bosnia and Northern Ireland and subsequently critically compare the two dissimilar conflicts

Movement Patterns of Phrynosoma mcallii and Phrynosoma platyrhinos in Response to Substrate Texture

During the summers of 1999 and 2000 the apparent habitat partitioning of two species of sympatric horned lizards was investigated at the Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range near Yuma, Arizona. The flat-tailed horned lizard, Phrynosoma mcallii, and the desert horned lizard, P. platyrhinos, overlap in range in portions of the Sonora desert in the southwestern United States. However, upon finer scale examination, it appeared that these horned lizards were partitioning the available habitat according to soil substrate texture. Phrynosoma mcallii appeared to be exclusively found in areas of fine, loose, wind-blown sands, in contrast to P. platyrhinos, which appeared to be associated with areas of hardpan substrates covered by small rocks and pebbles. Subsequently, an experiment was set up to test if soil texture was indeed responsible, at least in part, for the observed partitioning of these lizards among the available habitat. Three experimental treatments were established (Sandy, Rocky, Mixed) which differed only with respect to soil texture. Lizards of both species and sexes were fitted with backpacks of thread and allowed to spool out one pathway in each of the three treatments. Additionally, pathways of P. mcallii found on the Naval Air Facility El Centro CA were also collected. This nearby population of P. mcallii is allopatric with respect to P. platyrhinos. Net displacements, fractal dimensions, and a correlated random walk (CRW) model were utilized to evaluate differences in movement patterns. Similarities in the net displacement and fractal dimension of movement pathways from both species of horned lizards for each of the three treatments suggest substrate composition does not affect species distribution. Additionally, a CRW model severely underpredicted the observed net squared displacement of both P. mcallii and P. platyrhinos among all three treatments and at both study sites, thus indicating that lizards were moving more linearly than would be expected. Other abiotic factors such as temperature or soil moisture could be important variables in habitat preference. Additionally, due to the sister relationship of these species, phylogenetic constraints in morphology and/or behavior may contribute the to lack of differing movement patterns among varying substrates

From Registration to Recounts Revisited: Developments in the Election Ecosystems of Five Midwestern States

As a follow-up to a study of problems during the 2006 elections, examines the states' continuing adjustments to institutional arrangements, voter registration databases, convenience voting, and post-election processes in the 2008 elections

Measuring Ejecta Velocity Improves Type Ia Supernova Distances

We use a sample of 121 spectroscopically normal Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to show that their intrinsic color is correlated with their ejecta velocity, as measured from the blueshift of the Si II 6355 feature near maximum brightness, v_Si. The SN Ia sample was originally used by Wang et al. (2009) to show that the relationship between color excess and peak magnitude, which in the absence of intrinsic color differences describes a reddening law, was different for two subsamples split by v_Si (defined as "Normal" and "High-Velocity"). We verify this result, but find that the two subsamples have the same reddening law when extremely reddened events (E(B-V) > 0.35 mag) are excluded. We also show that (1) the High-Velocity subsample is offset by ~0.06 mag to the red from the Normal subsample in the (B_max - V_max) - M_V plane, (2) the B_max - V_max cumulative distribution functions of the two subsamples have nearly identical shapes, but the High-Velocity subsample is offset by ~0.07 mag to the red in B_max - V_max, and (3) the bluest High-Velocity SNe Ia are ~0.10 mag redder than the bluest Normal SNe Ia. Together, this evidence indicates a difference in intrinsic color for the subsamples. Accounting for this intrinsic color difference reduces the scatter in Hubble residuals from 0.190 mag to 0.130 mag for SNe Ia with A_V < 0.7 mag. The scatter can be further reduced to 0.109 mag by exclusively using SNe Ia from the Normal subsample. Additionally, this result can at least partially explain the anomalously low values of R_V found in large SN Ia samples. We explain the correlation between ejecta velocity and color as increased line blanketing in the High-Velocity SNe Ia, causing them to become redder. We discuss some implications of this result, and stress the importance of spectroscopy for future SN Ia cosmology surveys, with particular focus on the design of WFIRST.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap

Preservation Plan for the Military Cemetery at Fort Adams

This work investigates and recommends plans for the preservation of the military cemetery at Fort Adams in Newport Rhode Island

Quarterly Economic Commentary, Summer 2017.

2017 has seen certain countervailing trends emerge as to the overall performance of the Irish economy. On the positive side, labour market data illustrate that the pace of employment creation and subsequent reduction in unemployment increased in the present year. In the previous Commentary, we had believed the Irish economy would experience an unemployment rate of just under 5.5 per cent by the end of 2018, we now believe this will happen earlier in that year. While most sectors of the economy are experiencing employment growth, the construction sector, along with the information and communications sector, registers the largest recent increase

Integrating Extension and Research Activities: An Exploratory Study

The exploratory study reported here examined Extension-research integration activities. Focus group interviews with Extension and research faculty (N=17) revealed several themes, which included: current status of integration activities, perceptions of the roles of Extension and research, barriers to integration, and opportunities for integration. Time, funding, administration-related communication challenges, need for clarification regarding respective roles of collaborators, and lack of incentives and structural support were viewed as barriers. Utilizing faculty joint appointments, networking, involving graduate students in Extension and research activities, and serving on graduate student committees were strategies suggested. Based on the findings, a framework for integration is proposed