Category — UL Seminars

Dr. Teresa Curtin has a weblog, you can look at it here. Let’s see what she does with it!

On April 2 I’ll be giving a seminar in MC-2005 about presentation methods. Here are the lecture notes, slides, and a handout we’ll use on the day.

First, let’s talk a little pop psychology, then we’ll move on to constructing the lecture in outline form, then I’ll offer some tips on electronic delivery: PowerPoint tips, website tips, podcasting tips, and some experimental feedback ideas I’m having a go at now. Finally, I’d like to have a discussion with you about what you find useful, and what I might think about improving with my own delivery. I’ll put up a podcast of the discussion afterwards.

Right Click to download the handout

Right Click to download the lecture notes

Click the link below to look at the slides

[Read more →]

BBC NEWS | In pictures: Urban life in Zimbabwe, Dollars and cents

Photos of urban life in Zimbabwe today: shortages, queues, hyperinflation, and hardship.

Blogged with Flock

Ireland and European Regional Policy—Influenced and Influencing.

Wednesday Nov 7, Daly Room, Plassey Hse, 2.15pm–3.30pm

This presentation explores Ireland’s response to the various tenets and thrusts of EU regional policy, a response which involved exploiting the inherent opportunities and responding creatively to obligations and constraints. Having identified the underlying domestic socio-economic and political features which moderated adaptation, changes to policy, polity and politics are highlighted and the new structures, processes and patterns of governance which have emerged are analysed.

Blogged with Flock

Dr. Alan Ahearne from NUI, Galway will be visiting UL this week to give a talk on “Internal and External Current Account Balances in the Euro Area”. Here are his slides, and hopefully a recording of his talk will be featured below after the lecture.

Date: 24 October, 2007

Time & Place: ERB008, 2pm.

Click here to download the slides.

The abstract of the talk is:

The dispersion in current account balances among countries in the euro area has widened markedly over the past decade-and-a-half, and especially since 1999.  We decompose current account positions for euro area countries  into intra-euro-area balances and extra-euro-area balances and examine the determinants of these balances.  Regarding intra-euro-area balances, we present evidence that capital tends to flow from high-income economies in the euro area to low-income economies euro area.  These flows have increased since the creation of the single currency in Europe.
Regarding extra-euro-area balances, we estimate a model of the trade balance of the euro area and individual euro-area countries with the rest of the world.  We find that a real appreciation of the euro against the currencies of its main trading partners appears to have a substantial effect on the euro area’s net exports in the long run, though the immediate effect is small.  Our estimates for individual countries suggest that the
adjustment to a real appreciation of the euro would not be equally distributed across euro-area countries.  In particular, Germany would bear the largest share of the
adjustment, while the other large euro-area economies would be relatively unaffected.
Finally, we find that the introduction of the euro seems to have changed the dynamics of trade balance adjustment in three of the larger euro-area economies.

Professor McCloskey gave a fascinating seminar on Friday. My remarks before her talk are after the fold in the post. More information on Prof. McCloskey is available here and here.

Prof. McCloskey was also interviewed on the Pa Kenny show about Gender Crossing and her latest book today. You can listen to the interview here.

***Remarks before Prof. McCloskey’s Seminar***

2007-10-04

***Before the Seminar***

Hi, Thank you all for coming.

Today the Department of Economics is delighted to welcome Deirdre McCloskey.

Normally introducing the speaker is easy. I get up, explain who the speaker is, what the title of the talk is, and sit down again.

But how do you describe Deirdre McCloskey?

I decided to think about what it is she frequently does. She writes, so she’s definitely a writer. She teaches, so she’s a teacher. She lectures, Presides and upon occasion prognosticates. She criticizes, she reads, she thinks about society now and in the past. I’m sure she spends an awful lot of time breathing, too. We could go on ad nauseam. She is concerned with language, the liquid we as members of society are all dissolved in, so then she is a linguist/chemist, stirring this liquid until something interesting coagulates and bounces off the glass.

I decided to stop there before anyone got hurt. Professor McCloskey is one of a few in her generation considered a ‘broad gauge intellectual’ to paraphrase Nobel Laureate Robert Fogel.

Personally I’d class her with Robert Heilbroner as, quite simply, an intellectual: someone who uses her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas.

List of her accomplishments:

* UIC Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1999-present.

* Professor of Social Thought, Academia Vitae, Deventer, The Netherlands, 2006-

LOVE THIS ONE:

* Professor Extraordinary, Department of Economics, University of the Free State, South Africa, Jan-Dec 2007, 2008 (in residence March 2007, 2008).

BA & Ph.D from Harvard.

President of the Midwest Economics Association, Economic History Association, Social Science History association, One of the Founders of the Cliometric Society,

Author of 360+ articles and author or editor of 21 published books with at least 5 in the pipeline.

On Oct 20, she is to receive an honorary doctorate from The School of Business, Economics and Law, Götenberg, Sweden.

All of which is simply me framing, a serious person, an intellectual.

Now for the easy bit: the title of her talk: Today her talk is on the “Cult of Statistical Significance”.

I give you Deirdre McCloskey.

*** After Seminar***

Thanks, etc.

Present Gift.

The Next Seminar will be on Wednesday, October 24, 2-3 in this room.

The Speaker is Dr. Alan Ahearne from NUIG, I”m sure you’ll all have seen him on the news.

The title of the talk is “Internal and External Current Account Balances in the Euro Area”.

Abstract

This paper considers the relationship between innovation, ownership and profitability for a panel of manufacturing plants in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Previous literature suggests that innovators are persistently more profitable than non-innovators, but little is known about how this link is moderated by external versus domestic ownership. We consider the link between innovation and profits separately for innovators and non-innovators, and for indigenous innovators and non-innovators and externally-owned plants. We also consider the determinants of innovation over the distribution of plant-level profitability, and find that the determinants of profitability – including innovation and external ownership – vary over the distribution from low to high profitability plants. We find support for the view that innovators and non-innovators have different profitability determinants, and that the profitability of externally-owned plants depends on very different factors to that of indigenously-owned enterprises.

[Right click the link below and choose 'save target as' to download the file]

Roper_UL_Sem_1_Autumn_2007.pdf

Autumn 2007

Links to papers will be posted closer to the seminar date.

26 September, Prof. Stephen Roper, Aston University, “Innovation, Ownership and Profitability ”

5 October, Prof. Deirdre McCloskey, U. Illinois at Chicago, “The Cult of Statistical Significance”

24 October Dr. Alan Ahearne, NUI, Galway, “Internal and External Current Account Balances in the Euro Area.”

14 November Dr. Liam Delaney, UCD & ESRI, “Neuroeconomics and decision making in different life domains”

21 November Prof. Miriam Wiley & Dr. Jacqueline O’ Reilly, ESRI, “The Public/Private Mix in Irish Acute Public Hospitals: Trends and Implications”

28 November Dr. Arnold Polanski, Queens University Belfast, “Mediated Auctions”"



Spring 2007



16th February 12h00-13h00

Ronan Lyons, Forfas

National Competitiveness & Export-Led Growth: Why Policymakers Should Still Care’

23rd February 12h00-13h00

Brendan Kenelly & Eoghan Garvey, Department of Economics, NUI, Galway

‘The Socio-Economic Determinants of Suicide in the OECD’

2nd March 12h00-13h00

Fergal O’Brien, Department of Accounting and Finance, UL

‘Index Options: Forward Looking Systematic Moments’

9th March 12h00-13h00

Vanni Borooah, Department of Economics, University of Ulster

‘Love Thy Neighbour: How Much Bigotry Is There In Western Countries?

16th March 12h00-13h00

Dermot McCarthy and Donal Palcic, Department of Economics, University of Limerick

‘Employee Share Ownership Plans and Privatisation in Ireland’

23rd March 12h00-13h00

Todd Watkins, Lehigh University, USA

‘Absorptive Capacity and R&D Tax Policy: Are In-house and External Contract R&D Substitutes or Complements?’

30th March 12h00-13h00

Charles Larkin, Trinity College, Dublin

‘Ius Naturale, Ius Gentium and the IMF Quota-Voting System’

13th April 12h00-13h00

John Hill, Department of Economics, University of Limerick

‘Evaluating the Income and Employment Effects of Labour Market Programmes in Ireland’

20th April 12h00-13h00

Ajit Singh, Queens College, Cambridge

‘Globalisation, Industrial Revolutions in China and Labour Markets in Advanced Countries: Implications for National and International Economic Policy.’

27th April 12h00-13h00

Aidan Kane, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway

‘Public Revenue and Expenditure for Ireland, 1922-64’

4rth May 12h00-13h00

Eoin Reeves, Department of Economics, UL

‘The Practice of Contracting in Public Private Partnerships: Transaction Costs and Relational Contracting in the Irish Schools Sector’

Handout is here

Slides are here

Programs are here

For next time: Read Lachmann, The Role of Expectations in Economics as a Social Science. (Jstor Link, you have to be in college to open and download it).

Check back here for presentation times.

Because of room availability and your other project commitments, we will not be holding presentations next week.

All presentations will take place in week 11.

I’ll have more details on rooms, etc, in the lecture on Monday.

Prof. Donovan will give an hour’s lecture on April 16. Slides for the talk are here (71kb). Right click the link to download.

Summary

This paper examines the impact on labour markets in advanced countries (ACs) of the integration of the two giant fast-growing countries, China and India, with the liberalised global economy.  The integration is taking place under “current globalisation,”  which consists of free trade, free capital movements and domestic labour market flexibility (instead of free international movement of labour).  The first part reviews economic theory as well as several generations of empirical work on the effects of the fast expansion of exports from developing countries (DCs) on AC labour markets.  Taking into account the positive, the negative, the direct and the indirect effects, the most up-to-date empirical research suggests that globalisation has a small overall effect on output and employment in the US, that is just as likely to be favourable as being unfavourable, depending on the time period and the countries considered.

The paper highlights the pioneering contribution of Freeman (2005), which suggests that even if trade with the South has not previously disadvantaged North workers, the doubling of the global labour force with India and China’s recent integration with the international economy may have profoundly unfavourable repercussions for AC workers.  Two major points of constructive criticism of the Freeman thesis have been emphasised here:  (a) the lack of analysis of the relevant demand side variables and (b) inadequate recognition of the inherent economic strength and dynamism of the US economy and its innovative large corporations.  These should enable the U.S to maintain its technological leadership.

In relation to policy, the underlying question examined here is whether India and China’s industrial revolutions, which are a social imperative for these countries, can be sustained and made compatible with full employment and rising real wages for workers in the North.  It is concluded that current globalisation cannot meet these twin objectives and that coordination and cooperation between nation states under alternative globalisation are much the better way, if not the only way of realising these goals.  The reasons why this should be so are explained in the last part of the paper.

[Download this version of the paper (912kb)]

Charles Larkin from Trinity College Dublin, will be presenting a paper entitled “Ius Naturale, Ius Gentium and the IMF Quota-Voting System” to the UL economics department. Slides of his talk are available here [512kb], as well as a handout . Just right click these links and choose ’save target as’.

Autumn 2007

26 September, Prof. Stephen Roper, Aston University, “Innovation, Ownership and Profitability ”

5 October, Prof. Deirdre McCloskey, U. Illinois at Chicago, “The Cult of Statistical Significance”

24 October Dr. Alan Ahearne, NUIG, “Internal and External Current Account Balances in the Euro Area.”

14 November Dr. Liam Delaney, UCD & ESRI, “Neuroeconomics and decision making in different life domains”

21 November Prof. Miriam Wiley, ESRI, “TBA”

28 November Dr. Arnold Polanski, QUB, “TBA”



Spring 2007



16th February 12h00-13h00

Ronan Lyons, Forfas

National Competitiveness & Export-Led Growth: Why Policymakers Should Still Care’

23rd February 12h00-13h00

Brendan Kenelly & Eoghan Garvey, Department of Economics, NUI, Galway

‘The Socio-Economic Determinants of Suicide in the OECD’

2nd March 12h00-13h00

Fergal O’Brien, Department of Accounting and Finance, UL

‘Index Options: Forward Looking Systematic Moments’

9th March 12h00-13h00

Vanni Borooah, Department of Economics, University of Ulster

‘Love Thy Neighbour: How Much Bigotry Is There In Western Countries?

16th March 12h00-13h00

Dermot McCarthy and Donal Palcic, Department of Economics, University of Limerick

‘Employee Share Ownership Plans and Privatisation in Ireland’

23rd March 12h00-13h00

Todd Watkins, Lehigh University, USA

‘Absorptive Capacity and R&D Tax Policy: Are In-house and External Contract R&D Substitutes or Complements?’

30th March 12h00-13h00

Charles Larkin, Trinity College, Dublin

‘Ius Naturale, Ius Gentium and the IMF Quota-Voting System’

13th April 12h00-13h00

John Hill, Department of Economics, University of Limerick

‘Evaluating the Income and Employment Effects of Labour Market Programmes in Ireland’

20th April 12h00-13h00

Ajit Singh, Queens College, Cambridge

‘Globalisation, Industrial Revolutions in China and Labour Markets in Advanced Countries: Implications for National and International Economic Policy.’

27th April 12h00-13h00

Aidan Kane, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway

‘Public Revenue and Expenditure for Ireland, 1922-64’

4rth May 12h00-13h00

Eoin Reeves, Department of Economics, UL

‘The Practice of Contracting in Public Private Partnerships: Transaction Costs and Relational Contracting in the Irish Schools Sector’