Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Publication
    Earnings inequality, institutions and the macroeconomy – what can we learn from Ireland’s boom years?
    (University College Dublin. Geary Institute, 2010-03) ; ;
    Rapid economic growth is often expected to lead to increased returns to education and skills and thus to rising wage inequality. Ireland offers a valuable case study, with distinctive wage-setting institutions and exceptional rates of growth in output, employment and incomes in the Celtic Tiger period from 1994 to 2007. We find that dispersion in (hourly) wage inequality fell sharply to 2000, before increasing though much less sharply to 2007. Returns to both education and work experience declined considerable in the earlier period, while the increase in lower earnings relative to the median was associated with the introduction of the minimum wage in 2000, anchoring the bottom of the distribution. For 2000-2007 the faster increase in higher earnings may be associated with the changing pattern of immigration and of the employment growth in the second half of the boom, Further exploration of the factors at work towards the top of the distribution during these years is an important research priority.
      1740
  • Publication
    Job Loss by Wage Level: Lessons from the Great Recession in Ireland
    (University College Dublin. Geary Institute, 2015-09-24) ;
    This paper explores the pattern of job loss in the Great Recession with a particular focus on its incidence by wage level, using data for Ireland. Ireland experienced a particularly pronounced decline in employment with the onset of the recession by international and historical standards, which makes it a valuable case study. Using EU-SILC data, our analysis identifies which employees were most affected. The results show that the probability of staying in employment, from one year to the next, is positively related to monthly wages both during the boom and in the bust. The gradient with wages, however, is much more marked in the bust, and remains significantly so even after controlling for a range of individual characteristics including part-time status, demographics, education, labour market history, industries or occupations.   
      254