Open Journal Systems Trinity College Dublin
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Have Irish Sovereign Bonds Decoupled from the Euro Area Periphery, and Why?
Get PDFThis paper considers whether Ireland’s sovereign bonds have decoupled from other Euro Area sovereigns (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain – the ‘periphery’) with whom it was categorised during the sovereign bond market crisis of the early 2010s. Having initially reviewed yield and sovereign stress indicator data, two economteric methodologies (those of Gibson et al., 2017, and Diebold and Yilmaz, 2012) are applied to long-term bond spread data for the Euro Area 11 countries for the period March 2005 to July 2018. These indicate a shift since around mid-2013 in the Irish sovereign bond market’s relationships within the Euro Area, with a higher correlation and interaction with developments in ‘core’ Member States’ markets over those of the periphery Member States now occurring. An econometric model of the determination of the Irish sovereign bond yield spread shows the trend decline in its value since the early 2010s owing to both an improvement in the sustainability of the fiscal position and undue market pessimism dissipating over time. The paper concludes that a combination of emerging fiscal and financial sector vulnerabilities can lead quickly to an upsurge in the sovereign’s market bond yields that is justified by these developments and which can be added to by sudden movements in market sentiment from undue optimism to undue pessimism. In such an environment, maintaining a sustainable fiscal path, adhering to fiscal rules, and fostering a resilient banking system are the best means by which the sovereign can help to keep its bond yields from being priced too highly and from varying substantially over time
Export Structure, FDI and the Rapidity of Ireland’s Recovery from Crisis
Get PDFThe FDI-intensity of the Irish economy has been a frequent topic of contributions to The Economic and Social Review over the years. The paper begins by reviewing the FDI-related distortions that complicate the measurement of Irish economic performance. It then extends the analysis to discuss how these might affect the identification of the factors behind the strength and rapidity of the recent recovery. The measures underlying the ‘internal devaluation’ perspective are shown to be infected by these same distortions. The asymmetric characteristics of the Irish economy are argued to require that greater attention be paid to export structure than is standard in textbook macroeconomic analysis
Melancholy:: The Evolution of the English Malady, c. 1550-1750
Get PDFThis article argues that the spread of transnational medical theories had a significant effect on how the English perceived the condition of melancholy and, by extension, themselves in the early modern era. The point is made by studying the spread of ideas on melancholy expressed in a popular late-fifteenth-century Italian text, De vita libri tres by the philosopher Marsilio Ficino. By examining how Ficino’s theories of inspired, or genial, melancholy influenced the English medical landscape, this article attempts to highlight the potential for foreign opinion to shape part of what would become known as the essential English character by the eighteenth century
From Participation to Performance: The impact arts management can have on an inclusive community choir’s identity
Get PDFThrough a case study of the Open Arts community choir’s engagement in a televised talent show, this research article explores the complex influences of managers such as TV producers on the performance and misrepresentation of inclusive choirs.
It is widely acknowledged that choral singing can provide a rewarding experience for participants. However, an important aspect to choral practice is performing to an audience, who may have preconceived impressions of the choir. This can influence the manner in which marginalised choral singers perceive themselves. The findings in this article are based on ethnographic research with the Open Arts community choir from Belfast, which comprises some members with disabilities. The research draws upon ‘communities of practice’ (Wenger, 1998) and the performance theories of academics such as Victor Turner (1969). I demonstrate the complexity of the interactions that occur between the choir and the producers of two television shows, and also how the singers sometimes expressed that there were discrepancies between their perceptions of the choir and the manner in which they were presented by the shows’ producers. At times, this difference between perception and representation caused members to feel misrepresented and unable to enjoy performing. As a result, the aim of the article is to consider how those in arts management can better support inclusive musical groups in effectively presenting their desired image to audiences
Culture, democracy and the right to make art: the British Community Arts Movement (edited by Alison Jeffers and Gerry Moriarty, London, Bloomsbury, 2017) 263 pp., £64.80 (hardcover), ISBN 978-1-4742-5835-7
Get PDFWith cultural democracy ‘having a moment’, Moriarty and Jeffers curation recollections reclaims some of the knowledge of the community arts movement of the pre-digital 1970s and 1980s and emphasises its intrinsic roots in wider social and political movements for greater democracy.
As arts and cultural policy scholars and practitioners will be aware, ‘cultural democracy’ is having a moment. Since the publication of this book by Alison Jeffers and Gerri Moriarty (with associated events in Manchester and Belfast) the topic of cultural democracy has become increasingly prevalent. Forthcoming conferences in York (Be SpectACTive!, October 2018) and Manchester (The International Conference of Social Theory, Politics and the Arts, November 2018) will engage in debates around the notion of cultural democracy and the role of audience participation in performing arts and cultural policy
The Socioeconomic Determinants of Crime in Ireland from 2003-2012
Get PDFThis paper analyses the socioeconomic determinants of property crime and violent crime in Ireland between 2003 and 2012. The aim of the study is to determine whether individuals respond to incentives when deciding to engage in crime and whether this decision is dependent on the type of crime an individual engages in. The results of the paper support the economic theory of crime which indicates that criminals respond to incentives, particularly for property crimes. Higher detection rates have been found to reduce crime rates for property crimes while the impact on violent crimes is found to be insignificant. The socioeconomic determinants of crime tend to be more ambiguous
Editorial
Get PDFIn May 2016, the American novelist Jonathan Franzen appeared on a celebrity charity edition of Jeopardy, the popular US quiz in which contestants must frame their answers within the construction “What is…?” to score points. On the show, Franzen was asked “whether he thought Twitter was trivializing social interaction”. To this he readily agreed, arguing that the social media platform “crippled real, complicated conversation”. According to Franzen, “Real conversations … must have a thesis, a counter-thesis and a synthesis.”
While Franzen’s prescription of a Hegelian antidote to the superficiality of online communication is more urgent now than ever, a television game show hardly represents the ideal context for this message. There is something disingenuous and unsettling about an avid chronicler of today’s techno-consumerist malaise voicing his lament on a scripted quiz show. The diagnostician became a symptom, occupying a self-defeating position which could only have been rationalised away in the name of increased promotion for Franzen and his views, or simply extra money for the American Bird Conservancy, his chosen charity. Ends justifying the means, as ever.
Nevertheless, it is hard not to feel like a Franzen-esque figure amid the vaudeville of Trinity’s literary scene. It has become increasingly difficult to imagine that long-form prose — short stories, essays, book excerpts — will not look somewhat absurd beside editorials which comprise a few quotes from a well-known figure’s back-catalogue drooped about the page. Such works would seem no less like oddballs in these contexts than that serious writer describing Hegelian dialectics under the lurid lights of a happy hour quiz.
Which brings us on to our new publication, in which we would like to house these oddballs. An asylum, if you will. But as with most asylums, there is no one identifiable madness in the inhabitants themselves — the pieces are, by all accounts, fantastically thoughtful and cogent works of literature. Their sequestration here is instead demanded by the prevailing tastes, or more accurately prejudices, of the culture found outside.
In this culture, poetry preponderates; but in a way which we suggest points to something more dispiriting than shifting literary vogues. We are in dangerous territory here, for reactionary condemnations of the new and avant-garde are as old as literature itself. One need only read a passage of G. K. Chesterton’s criticism to know that the pitfall of every critic in his time is to inveigh against what is known as “modern”, only to advocate a return to the old ways: formalism, respectability, a revival of tradition and the classics. However, we do not protest a modern sensibility but a postmodern one, and at that its aimless and ongoing degeneration.
A glance at most of the poetry featured in independent publications around Dublin will confirm this. There is a malaise at work, and not the sort of malaise out of which emerges a Renaissance or an Enlightenment. The work found in these publications does not strive towards common understanding, meaningful communication between people, or argument. Instead, we get: found poems; treatments of trauma concerned only with stylish presentation; and weary musings which say less about the poem than they do the poet. This is a malaise in creative discourse which stops, as any discourse does, with the belief that there is either nothing more to say, or that there is nothing that can be said. All that is left to write, then, is the outworking of the subject as some literary Narcissus; self-perceiving, self-involved and, ultimately, only of interest to itself.
The central premise behind this malaise is that experience is not communicable. One of the defining features of our era is that there is no longer a common set of values, or even facts, held by everyone in society. In their absence we, secure in our own self-selected worldviews, are locked in prisons of individuality within which we can only create art about ourselves.
In response to these stultifying literary conditions, we should instead look to precipitate the emergence of a truly universal means of communication. It is our belief that a revival in clear, engaging prose will provide an essential break with the impoverished present of unimaginative poetry and worthless experimentation.
For most students, prose is the (hidden) backbone of their textual experience: student media, lecture slides, emails, essays, books and textbooks are all written and therefore consumed through prose. This functionality is not, as some might argue, a decisive check on the artistic capabilities of prose, but proof of its endless application. At any moment in time, a student is most likely learning, exchanging, and thinking in prose. The idea that there is no open, non-competitive platform for students to share art wrought from the everyday language of life is a damning check on the opportunities we might ever have as a community of people to understand one another.
It should hopefully become clear throughout Carta that what we wish to insist on — to borrow a phrase applied elsewhere to the criticism of Walter Benjamin — is ‘the communicability of experience in spite of itself.’ No matter how ineffable experience may seem, or how self-defeating it might be to talk about it, this is nothing more than the task of the writer. Indeed, it goes some way in explaining Franzen’s incongruous behaviour on TV: the insistence on communication, in spite of everything, even when that communication has itself become logically untenable.
We are proud to say that every piece printed here takes up the task of generating meaning line after line wholeheartedly. Though exemplifying a range of impressive techniques, each writer can ultimately be found asking questions about what it is to be human; or, in the case of our featured essay, what it is to have a soul. And if we have learnt one thing from watching over old episodes of Jeopardy, it is that answers must always come in the form of questions.
Christian Moore and Harry Downes
1st October, 201
Universal GP Care in Ireland: Potential Cost Implications
Get PDFIn 2011, the Government made a commitment to the introduction of universal General Practitioner (GP) care, which they equated to the removal of fees for GP care. The aim of this paper is to quantify the potential cost implications of implementing universal GP care in Ireland. The analysis finds that universal GP care would add between 2 and 3.5 per cent to overall public healthcare expenditure and up to 1.2 per cent to total healthcare expenditure. While the introduction of universal GP care in Ireland would go some way to addressing limitations of the current system, other reforms may be required before universality can be achieved
Householder Preferences for the Design of an Energy Efficiency Retrofit Subsidy in Ireland
Get PDFImproving the energy efficiency of residential dwellings generates private benefits to homeowners, including lower energy costs, health benefits, and improved property values, as well as positive externalities associated with reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Underinvestment in residential energy efficiency has been attributed to market failures and behavioural issues, which provides a basis for public policy intervention in provision of energy efficiency. This paper examines households’ preferences for design features of energy efficiency retrofit subsidies and how these preferences vary across the usual respondent attributes. Based on a survey of Irish homeowners we find that cash payment subsidies are strongly preferred compared to other indirect methods of financial support such as tax credits, roughly by a 70:30 ratio. There are two notable areas where preferences differ by respondent attributes; age and whether respondents have previously availed of an energy efficiency retrofit grant. The preferences of older age cohorts differ compared to younger respondents across all the subsidy schemes examined, whereas people who have previously availed of retrofit grants are more likely to favour ex-post cash payments compared to upfront discounts
Incumbency Advantage in an Electoral Contest
Get PDFIn a campaign spending contest framework, we investigate the potency of frequently cited sources of incumbency advantage in generating the observed patterns of campaign expenditure and reelection rates. Since one Dollar of extra spending should not change a certain loser to a certain winner, we extend the literature by allowing the electoral benefit of visibility to be stochastic. The model provides an explanation of earlier empirical findings that district variation in the cost of visibility does not influence incumbents’ victory probability. Furthermore, in contrast to previous literature, the model predicts that campaign finance legislation can increase challengers’ expected payoffs