Assessment of Implications of EU Enlargement for FDI and Jobs in Ireland

This study examines the potential implications of EU enlargement for employment and foreign direct investment in Ireland.

Regional Tax Differences and Multinational Profits in Europe

This paper tests to what extent are corporate tax differentials motivating the reallocation of reported profits between EU parent multinationals and their European based affiliates. Hines and Rice (1994) report that a 1-percentage point reduction in corporation tax induces a 3% rise in reported profitability of European based affiliates of US parent multinationals. When aggregated firm-level tax data are used and do not directly control for the parent-affiliate pair-wise trading environments, we obtain a semi-elasticity of -2.4 that is similar to previous research. But when we apply firm-level information on the total bundle of tax liabilities and control for the trading environment of each parent-affiliate pair we obtain a semi-elasticity of –0.25. This suggests that while corporation tax differences do affect reported profitability; the magnitude of this effect is lower than previously reported in studies using information from U.S. owned multinationals.

An Economic Activity Index for Ireland: The Dynamic Single-Factor Method

This paper estimates a coincident indicator of economic activity for Ireland using a dynamic single-factor model. The composite index is used to identify the peaks and troughs in Irish economic activity, and is capable of being updated on a timelier basis than estimates of GDP or GNP. The contribution of this paper is to provide an easily understood coincident index reflecting current economic activity in the Irish economy. This could be useful in helping policy makers and private agents to identify the peaks and troughs in Irish economic activity.

Do Multinational Enterprises Relocate Employment to Low Wage Regions? Evidence from European Multinationals

This paper analyses the behaviour of European multinational enterprises. To this end we use a unique firm level panel data set of more than 1,000 European multinational parent enterprises and their affiliates. The affiliates are located either in the European Union (North, South), Central and Eastern Europe or both. We find for parent firms operating in the manufacturing sector that the labour cost elasticity of parent employment with respect to North EU affiliates’ labour costs is positive and statistically significant, ranging from 0.03 to 0.08, depending on the specification considered. This implies employment substitution between parents and their North EU based affiliates. This substitution effect becomes stronger when affiliates are operating in a different sector than their parent. However, we find no evidence of substitution effects between parent employment and its affiliates that are located in low wage regions in the EU and in Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, substitution effects are absent for firms operating in the non-manufacturing sector. Our results suggest that on average the competition from low wage countries in Central and eastern Europe and the South of the EU did not contribute to a relocation of domestic jobs to these low wage regions.

Job Turnover in Irish Manufacturing 1976 -2006

While growth in output and employment remains relatively strong in the Irish economy, there has been considerable focus recently on some high-profile job losses, particularly in the manufacturing sector. This paper places these developments within a broader context and shows that aggregate changes in the net number of jobs arise from large numbers of firms both increasing and decreasing employment simultaneously at all points in time. Even at the height of the Celtic Tiger boom when employment grew by 8 percent, this was the result of 15 percent growth in jobs by expanding firms offset by 7 percent of positions being eliminated in firms that were contracting their workforces. One important feature of job flows is that they may contribute to productivity growth by allowing movements from low to high productivity firms. To a degree, this reflects the re-allocation of jobs from declining sectors to expanding sectors, but this is not a comprehensive explanation. A significant factor underlying job flows is the reallocation within sectors from under-performing firms to expanding firms. This study also shows that productivity growth is, on balance, positive for employment growth, as it results, more often than not, in increased employment and higher earnings rather than job losses. On the other hand, these calculations also show how hard it is for policy-makers to identify firms that will be employment and productivity growth winners.

Job Turnover in Irish Manufacturing 1972–2006

With the recent slowdown in global economic growth, there has been considerable focus in Ireland on some high-profile job losses, particularly in the manufacturing sector. This paper places such developments into a broader context and shows that aggregate changes in the net number of jobs arise from large numbers of firms both increasing and decreasing employment simultaneously at all points in time. Even at the height of the Celtic Tiger boom when employment grew by 8 per cent, this was the result of 15 per cent growth in jobs by expanding firms offset by 7 per cent of positions being eliminated in contracting firms. One important feature of job flows is that they may contribute to productivity growth by allowing movements from low to high productivity firms. To a degree, this reflects the re-allocation of jobs from declining sectors to expanding sectors, but this is not a comprehensive explanation. A significant factor underlying job flows is the reallocation within sectors from under-performing firms to expanding firms. This study also shows that productivity growth is, on balance, positive for employment growth. On the other hand, these calculations also show how hard it is for policymakers to identify firms that will be employment and productivity growth winners.

Tracking Human Behavioural Consistency by Analysing Periodicity of Household Water Consumption

People are living longer than ever due to advances in healthcare, and this has prompted many healthcare providers to look towards remote patient care as a means to meet the needs of the future. It is now a priority to enable people to reside in their own homes rather than in overburdened facilities whenever possible. The increasing maturity of IoT technologies and the falling costs of connected sensors has made the deployment of remote healthcare at scale an increasingly attractive prospect. In this work we demonstrate that we can measure the consistency and regularity of the behaviour of a household using sensor readings generated from interaction with the home environment. We show that we can track changes in this behaviour regularity longitudinally and detect changes that may be related to significant life events or trends that may be medically significant. We achieve this using periodicity analysis on water usage readings sampled from the main household water meter every 15 minutes for over 8 months. We utilise an IoT Application Enablement Platform in conjunction with low cost LoRa-enabled sensors and a Low Power Wide Area Network in order to validate a data collection methodology that could be deployed at large scale in future. We envision the statistical methods described here being applied to data streams from the homes of elderly and at-risk groups, both as a means of early illness detection and for monitoring the well-being of those with known illnesses.Comment: 2019 2nd International Conference on Sensors, Signal and Image Processin

Wage Setting and Wage Flexibility in Ireland

This paper presents results from a survey of Irish firms which was carried out in late 2006 and early 2007.

Biofuel as an alternative shipping fuel : technological, environmental and economic assessment

© Royal Society of Chemistry 2019Fossil derived fuels available for application within the maritime sector have been dominated by heavy fuel oil (HFO), which is conventionally used in low speed (main) engines, and more refined fuels such as marine diesel oil (MDO), which is consumed in fast or medium speed engines. However, increasing fuel costs and regulatory pressure such as the restrictions placed on sulphur content have increased interest in the use of alternative fuels. A number of alternative fuels have been identified and may be viable for use within the maritime sector including straight vegetable oil (SVO) as an alternative to HFO in low speed engines, biodiesel to replace MDO/MGO in low to medium speed engines and bio-liquefied natural gas (bio-LNG) in gas engines using LNG. The potential sources of biomass feedstocks, conversion pathways and technologies are identified. The key parameters limiting their potential application are examined, in particular, availability, technological development, technical integration, and operational consequences. A proposed solution to overcome these limitations is recommended. The effective implementation of these strategies will enable the more widespread use of biofuels in marine applications, significantly reducing emissions from ships and improving global air quality and also protecting the ecological environment.Peer reviewe