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Gender Difference in Household Consumption: Some Convergence over Three Decades
Full text linkThe cost-of-living crisis has increased attention on consumption and how it differs for particular societal groups. There is much theoretical evidence that consumption patterns of men and women should differ, but the empirical evidence is scant, due in part to the availability of individual level consumption data. This paper tackles the question of consumption differentials between men and women over nearly three decades in Ireland. Using harmonised survey data, we show how patterns of consumption of male- and female-headed households have changed over this period of significant economic turmoil and growth
Aducanumab: The Controversial New Drug Licensed to Treat Alzheimer’s Disease
Full text linkAlzheimer’s Disease is a neurodegenerative condition that results in both cognitive and functional decline. It has a high prevalence in the developed world, accompanied by a large burden of disease.
There are few treatment options for Alzheimer’s Disease which has led to a high interest in Aducanumab, a monoclonal antibody designed by Biogen Incorporated and Eisai Corporation Limited. It selectively targets the aggregated forms of β-amyloid and decreases plaques, which is a pathological feature of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Trials of Aducanumab showed significant reductions in amyloid plaque (61%; p<0.0001] in PRIME, 59%; p<0.0001 in ENGAGE, 71%; p<0.0001 in EMERGE), but proved inconclusive when determining if there was any clinical benefit associated with this mechanism.
These results, accompanied by various events in the history of this drug, namely its approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration through an accelerated pathway and the subsequent resignation of three panel members, has aroused controversy
CyberKnife and the Future of Cancer Treatment: Interview with Dr Ian Fraser
Full text linkCancer is a disease that has wedged itself into the mind of society as one of a cruel and devastating nature. As the second leading cause of death worldwide, it comes as no surprise that advances have been made in recent years towards developing potential therapeutic options.
However, the most pressing issue today is no longer just the killing of cancer. Instead, the focus lies in extending life while simultaneously avoiding any impairment to that life. As oncologist Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee so eloquently wrote in this 2010 book, “The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer”, what current therapy truly demands is the use of a “fantastically nimble knife: sharp enough to kill cancer yet selective enough to spare the patient”. It is with this in mind that we can consider the possibility that perhaps this knife exists in CyberKnife.
I spoke to Dr Ian Fraser, Consultant Radiation Oncologist at the Hermitage Medical Clinic in Lucan, where he is a member of Ireland’s first and only CyberKnife team, and asked him to offer an introduction to CyberKnife and what he thinks about the future of cancer therapy in Ireland
Perspectives on Practice: Film preservation policy in Ireland—the politics of omission
Full text linkIreland is one of the few western nations without a state sanctioned archive or policy for moving image preservation. This lack of a formally authorised national moving image collection or policy to protect it is surprising given Ireland’s membership of the European Union (EU), a supranational organisation that has stressed the importance of film heritage to society for decades and encourages member states to proactively preserve and disseminate their national film collections. Despite this, Ireland has neglected to implement EU film heritage recommendations and, whilst moving image preservation has been sporadically discussed at government level, it has never been deemed worthy of a specific policy, legislation or resultant safeguards. The absence of policy in this area has shaped official thinking and attitudes towards Irish moving image heritage, with support for preservation sporadic and ad hoc in nature. Policy and funding have concentrated on the production and distribution of new moving image works rather than the preservation and dissemination of heritage material. This paper utilises the author’s experience as Head of the Irish Film Institute’s (IFI) Irish Film Archive (IFI Archive) to explore this imbalance in Ireland’s film related policy and the practical consequences of this omission. It looks at recent cultural policy and strategy documents for evidence of film heritage provision and frames the findings within recent academic discourse examining the neoliberal turn in Irish cultural policy. Finally, it suggests possible solutions to safeguard and heritage moving image collections.
Entrepreneurial Leadership Skills and Competencies: A Systematic Literature Review
Full text linkEntrepreneurial leadership (EL) is a relatively new paradigm of enquiry. The research on entrepreneurial leadership skills and competencies and their development is dispersed. This study, following an evidence-based approach, aims to address this issue by applying a systematic literature review. The findings of the SLR show that entrepreneurial leadership skills and competencies are critically important for the success of organisations regardless of their nature, size and contexts. Results of the review identify that proactiveness, innovativeness, risk taking propensity, articulating vision, motivation, communication, influence, teamwork, creativity, and risk-taking are important skills of entrepreneurial leaders. Whilst personal, functional, technological, and interpersonal competencies were identified as essential competencies for entrepreneurial leaders; entrepreneurship education and courses, as well as experiential, socially interactive and project-based learning approaches are regarded as processes of EL competencies’ development. Drawing on extant literature, this research identified various research gaps and proposes future research streams on entrepreneurial leadership skills and competencies
How Does Entrepreneurial Leadership Pay Off for Small Businesses? Exploring contexts to understand the value of entrepreneurial leadership
Full text linkThis article examines the role of entrepreneurial leadership in small businesses. It investigates how entrepreneurial leadership influences followers’ behaviour, especially in challenging environments. By drawing on a qualitative study conducted with Nigerian small businesses, issues of attributes, skills and relational characteristics were found to be of central importance to responses concerning entrepreneurial leadership. The interview data reveal that entrepreneurial leadership involves influencing and guiding subordinates towards achieving entrepreneurial goals. Our major findings demonstrate the seemingly valuable interplay between aspects of leaders’ interpretations of entrepreneurial leadership and their relevance to small business growth. By providing a contextualised interpretation, this study contributes to the field of entrepreneurial leadership concerning contexts that have been largely neglected
Ignoring Emerging Infectious Diseases: The Fatal Error That Could Lead to the Next Pandemic
Full text linkEmerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) are a group of novel or re-surging infectious pathogens which primarily originate from animal populations.
Many EIDs have a pandemic-causing ability and should be a top priority for governments worldwide.
The primary strategies that should be implemented to prevent a pandemic caused by emerging pathogens revolve around preventing the transfer of zoonoses via diligent surveillance methods involving classical tools, data science, and artificial intelligence.
The equitable use of mRNA vaccine templates can decrease the spread, morbidity, and mortality of viral and possibly other pathogenic EIDs.
Governments must invest in creating stable healthcare systems and well-equipped research facilities to handle the burden of EID outbreaks
A Cross Country Perspective on Irish Enterprise Investment: Do Fundamentals or Constraints Matter?
Full text linkNumerous research papers have used Irish-only data to test for the presence of an investment gap for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this paper, we use cross-country firm-level survey data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys to explore the investment patterns of Irish enterprises in a cross-country context and test whether an investment gap is present when compared to other countries. We use an accelerator model of investment which links capital expenditure to firm output growth and test the sensitivity of investment to this key fundamental for Ireland and other countries. We then estimate whether Irish firms face an investment gap relative to their European peers. We test whether any differences in cross-country patterns are driven by variation in financial factors (such as credit access or indebtedness) or firm quality (managerial experience, website usage, operating profitability). We find that Ireland’s investment in fixed tangible assets is relatively well explained by these factors whereas a clear underinvestment in research and development expenditure emerges. Factors associated with investment in research and development include the degree of foreign technology usage, digitalisation and internationalisation
Leading in an Entrepreneurial Context — Present and Future Perspectives
Full text linkThis article introduces the special issue on entrepreneurial leadership, comprising six papers. Through this special issue, our principal aim as guest editors is to promote the progress of this field by deepening our knowledge of leading in an entrepreneurial context. In doing so, we invited submissions that will enhance our present and future perspectives on leading in an entrepreneurial context. We welcomed ‘research for’ rather than ‘research about’ entrepreneurial leadership. We focused especially on empirical research on particular topics within the broad area of entrepreneurial leadership. Yet we also sought studies that promote the value of entrepreneurial leadership in education programmes. The resulting collection of six articles gives the readers wide exposure to different thoughts and brings together a multidisciplinary perspective on the intersection between entrepreneurship and leadership
Local Labour Market Concentration and Wages in Ireland
No full textEconomic theory predicts that monopsonistic employers suppress wages below the marginal product of labour. We measure local labour market (LLM) concentration in Ireland from 2008 to 2019 using an employment share Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index (HHI), a proxy for monopsony power. LLM concentration in Ireland has followed a similar pattern to the US and UK since 2008, surging as firms closed during the financial crisis and falling throughout the recovery. There is substantial variation in HHI by region, with the Midlands having the highest average HHI in every year. As elsewhere, workers in concentrated LLMs earn less. To investigate causality we use a leave-one-out instrumental variable design that exploits national trends in firm numbers within industry to predict local HHI. Using this approach we find an elasticity of -0.27, meaning a 10% increase in the HHI reduces earnings by 2.7%