At The Margin

This is the final episode in conjunction with the Irish Society for Women in Economics (ISWE). This episode features a panel discussion on gender diversity in the Irish Economics Profession. I am joined by Dr. Margaret Samahita, Assistant Professor at UCD; Dr. Kevin Devereux, Assistant Professor at Peking University; and Míde Griffin, now based at the European University Institute in Florence but who was a research assistant with the ESRI at the time of recording. The conversation revolves around some research being carried out by Marageret and Kevin on gender diversity in Irish economics, with some additional insight offered by Míde. I hope you enjoy the conversation. The papers discussed can be found here: Are economics conferences gender-neutral? Evidence from Ireland: https://www.ucd.ie/economics/t4media/WP22_25.pdf Gender, Productivity, and Promotion in the Irish Economics Profession: https://www.ucd.ie/economics/t4media/WP22_16.pdf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the third episode in our special series in association with the Irish Society for Women in Economics (ISWE). I am joined by Kate Laffan to discuss the environment and wellbeing. Kate is an Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. Prior to that, Kate was a Marie Curie Fellow at UCD. Kate has done much work on the environment and how it impacts our welfare and general wellbeing. This is a very interesting conversation that took place some time ago as we were emerging from lockdown, so hopefully none of the lockdown fatigue comes through! I hope you enjoy the discussion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I am joined by Lucie Martin, PhD candidate at University College Dublin, to discuss administrative burdens. If I were to distil administrative burdens into a single sentence it would be the burden created by onerous form-filling or other administrative tasks. We all know the pain that comes with having to fill out yet another form or go through a seemingly unnecessary administrative process, but the research by Lucie and others suggests that this can create barriers for many to access certain benefits or services. Lucie takes us through the mechanisms of how this plays out. This is one of those great podcast topics. It is something that I was previously unaware of but when the concept was explained to me, I found it instantly relatable and wanted to find out more. I hope you share the same enthusiasm! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to a new set of episodes put together in conjunction with the Irish Society for Women in Economics (ISWE). In this first episode we discuss the gender wage gap in Ireland. I am joined by Karina Doorley of the ESRI and Donal O’Neill of Maynooth University. Both have looked at various aspects of the participation of women in the Irish workforce and also the differences in wages and earnings between men and women. Karina has charted the evolution of the gender pay gap in Ireland, while Donal and colleagues at Maynooth - Aedín Doris and Olive Sweetman - have explored the evolution of earnings after childbirth. We discuss these issues and more in this episode. If you enjoyed listening, please subscribe and tell your friends! Check out ISWE at the following address: https://www.iea.ie/irish-society-for-women-in-economics-iswe/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Energy prices are on everyone's mind lately since the Ukranian conflict began. Electricity markets have come under fire at a European level with Ursula von der Leyen saying they are no longer fit for purpose. Presumably this comment is in reference to the fact that wholesale electricity markets operate by setting the price at the cost of the most expensive unit to generate at a given moment. This guides good decision making, but has the side effect of creating windfall profits in extraordinary times such as this. So the key question is - is there a way to reduce these windfall profits for firms, transfer those returns or economic rents to consumers, be it through a transfer or changes in prices? There are many options but all may interfere with the efficient operation of the market and create unintended consequences. One key point about electricity markets is that they are complicated and a good market brings on the right generation at the right time. This is really important for short-term efficiency but also in the long run. One example of a potential unintended consequence is in relation to decarbonisation - we need the right portfolio of wind and renewables, but also storage and flexible generation to operate when wind is idle. A good market will find the best mix for us, adjustments to the market must minimise the likelihood of interfering with this. So that's the problem facing European decision-makers right now. In this episode I am joined by Bram Claeys, Senior Advisor with the The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), which is an independent, global NGO advancing energy policy innovation. This group have reviewed the potential options to solve this energy market conundrum, and have put forward some proposals of their own which we will discuss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we discuss energy poverty and deprivation in Ireland with Barra Roantree and Michelle Barrett (ESRI). This is the first time I've had the opportunity to discuss research that I've been involved in (available here: https://www.esri.ie/publications/energy-poverty-and-deprivation-in-ireland) We discuss the trends of energy poverty and deprivation from 1994-2016. Some households tend to respond to burdensome energy expenditures by cutting back while others are more likely to incur the additional cost while potentially cutting back on other expenditures. We discuss the groups that are more associated with either of these behaviours. The second part of the report covers the recent energy price changes. We discuss the impacts across the income spectrum, and highlight the socioeconomic groups most affected. Finally, we discuss ways in which the government could respond to shield those who are most vulnerable, discussing the equity (and efficiency) implications of proposed measures. I hope you enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is all about health economics, a topic which has been on my to-do list since I started the podcast. We give an introduction to health economics and discuss the type of healthcare problems economists can help with. We go through healthcare on the island of Ireland and compare the systems in place north and south and finally we discuss the future of healthcare on the island. On this episode we are talking to Professor Ciaran O Neill of Queen's University, Belfast. Ciaran is a professor at the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen's. Many of you may know Ciaran as co-organiser of the Ireland Masterclass in Health Economics. If you like this or other episodes, please share on social media or tell friends, family or colleagues. @AtTheMargin on Twitter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode features a roundtable discussion on the Ukranian conflict and what this means for energy and environmental policy in Europe. This roundtable discussion took place at a recent economics of sustainability workshop at the University of Oxford. We discussed a number of topics, including the short term policy response, the implications for the transition to renewables and agricultural policy. Among others, participants were drawn from: the University of Oxford, Technical University of Berlin, the University of Graz, Utrecht university, the University of Barcelona, and the London School of Economics. My thanks to all the workshop participants who offered their voices to the podcast. We covered a wide breadth of topics, some of which I may return to in future episodes to tackle in greater depth. Please do share with friends or on social media. All the best! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I am joined by members of the Irish Society for Women in Economics (ISWE) executive committee to discuss the topic of women in economics. Bróna ní Chobhthaigh, Oana Peia, Karen Arulsamy and Darragh Flannery join to form the panel. Among the topics covered, we discuss some of the barriers faced by women at various stages of the career and lifecycle and how these interact. Please check out the ISWE website where they will list many resources as the society develops. They also have accounts on the usual social media outlets: isweconomics@gmail.com@isweconomicsISWEconomicswww.linkedin.com/groups/13988991/ I hope you enjoy this discussion! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is our second episode on cryptocurrencies. I am joined by Dr. William Quinn, lecturer in finance at Queen's University Belfast. Will, along with his colleague Prof. John Turner, are experts when it comes to financial bubbles. Having observed crypto price dynamics that mimic a bubble, I invited Will along to give his views on whether cryptocurrency is indeed a financial bubble. When preparing for the chat, Will shared his recent lecture materials with me on how cryptocurrencies display many traits of financial fraud. We discuss the various types of fraud and how crypto dynamics fit these narratives. We also discuss the NFTs and tether - which is a stable coin and some of the dynamics that they introduce seem to go against many of the ideologies underpinning crypto currencies. Will holds the coveted position of being the first repeat guest on the podcast and also the guest to feature on our 40th episode! Thanks everyone for the support so far. If you've enjoyed the podcast, please give us a 5* review on apple podcasts to help bring in new listeners. If you want to learn more about bubbles, check out Will's book (co-authored with Prof. John Turner) on a history of financial bubbles https://www.cambridge.org/ie/academic/subjects/history/economic-history/boom-and-bust-global-history-financial-bubbles?format=HB Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I am joined by Prof. Brian Lucey of Trinity College Dublin who has carried out a lot of research in recent years on cryptocurrencies. We go through the basics behind crypto/blockchain and the dynamics in the market. Brian offers some words of caution for any central bankers that might have one eye on digital currencies! We move on to other areas of financial markets including the recent GameStop/wallstreetbets short squeeze. Prof. Lucey has done some interesting work analysing the sentiment expressed on reddit threads to see if this really was a case of all the little guys standing up to the man or whether it was a lot of scared little guys following a few heavy hitters. We also discuss NFTs or non-fungible tokens. These have recently entered the public consciousness and Brian takes us through what they are and where they may get their value. This is part one of a two-parter on crypto. Here we cover a lot of ground and go through the economic fundamentals, with a second part lined up to discuss more recent developments. If you like the podcast, tell your friends and share on social media! Every 5* review on Apple podcasts pushes us up the rankings and attracts the attention of someone new - so please help me to get the word out to new listeners! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we are chatting to Dr. Josue Ortega of Queen’s University Belfast. Josue is an expert in matching markets. These are essentially markets without money. Normally we use prices to allocate goods to those who value them the most - How do figure this out when we don’t have money? And what if both sides of the transaction have preferences, like matching employees to jobs or single persons to a romantic partner? This last point is something which Josue has done a lot of work on. In particular, he has explored the impact that online dating has had on the matching process – what factors result in matching ‘success’ and how online dating has changed the pattern of matching, particularly with respect to the diversity of romantic couples. A very interesting topic and hopefully we don’t take the romance out of dating by discussing it here! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode of at the margin I am joined by Dr. Flavio Toxvaerd to discuss the economics of vaccines. Flavio is a lecturer in economics at the University of Cambridge and has published widely on the economics of vaccines, immunisation and social distancing. Check out his extensive research on the topic here: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/people/faculty/fmot2 There’s something here for everybody really. There is insight for policymakers on how to approach social distancing and vaccine rollout; something for the nerdy economists like myself who want to think about applications for academic economic concepts; and also something for the current affairs junkie interested in better understanding issues such as vaccine nationalism and how to manage vaccine IP. Thanks very much to Flavio and thanks very much to all the patrons for keeping the show on the road. Check out http://www.patreon.com/atthemargin if you would like to become a patron! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I am joined by Linus Mattauch of the Technical University of Berlin. Linus is also a research affiliate with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the University of Oxford. Linus speaks to us about his work on making carbon pricing work for citizens. We discuss ways in which we can maximise the political acceptability of a carbon tax. This includes framing and the use of carbon tax revenues to make carbon taxes palatable to citizens. We go through some advice for policymakers, conditional on the political landscape that they face. Linus is working at the cutting edge of this field of research so I am very grateful to him for taking the time to speak to us. This episode is a complement to the previous carbon pricing episode with Muireann Lynch of the ESRI – please do check that out if you get a chance. In that episode, we go through the basic argument in favour of carbon pricing. Now we are taking this a step further – how best can we translate the theory into practice, taking into account some of the obstacles we face in the real world. . Support: http://www.patreon.com/atthemargin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to a new series of At the Margin! This episode is a bit earlier than expected – I wanted to share it with you as soon as possible. We’ll be back to our usual Tuesday release date in due course. Seamus Coffey joins to discuss corporation tax. Seamus is an economics lecturer at University College Cork and is a former chair of Ireland’s Fiscal Advisory Council. He is also the go-to person when it comes to discussing Ireland’s corporate tax rate having published an independent review for the Irish government in 2017. If you’re like me, you will have kept one ear tuned to the ongoing debate surrounding Irish corporation tax but may not have fully read up on the topic to give a well-informed take. Hopefully this conversation will fill in the gaps. We discuss the basics surrounding corporation tax, how Irish tax rates interact with US tax policy and how this may change with proposals put forward by the OECD and the US. Enjoy! https://www.patreon.com/AtTheMargin if you'd like to help cover the costs of the podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I am joined by Dr. Fergal O’Connor, finance lecturer at University College Cork. Fergal is an expert in gold and other precious metals. We go through everything you wanted to know about gold. We discuss the historical reasons why gold is valuable and how this has translated into the modern world. We go through the various economic drivers and we also touch on other related commodities such as bitcoin. Fergal really knows his stuff and is very easy to listen to so I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I make a few jokes throughout that we are not giving any investment advice but maybe I should be clear – we are not giving any investment advice. We accept no liability for any losses incurred if you decide to follow any investment strategy on foot of this podcast. The patreon page is at http://www.patreon.com/atthemargin. If you like what you hear and want to throw a few bob in the tip jar then take a look at the patreon. There’s some bonus content, hot takes and a bit of career chat on there. Some new content coming soon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I am joined by Dr. David Zetland – David is a lecturer at Leiden University and an expert on the political economy of water management. We discuss the economics behind water management and how politics can get in the way. We discuss the economics and politics surrounding water charging throughout the British Isles and discuss the ongoing Irish water charge saga. David is a great speaker and this is a topic I really enjoyed. I’d recommend you check out David’s podcast called jive talking (https://soundcloud.com/jivetalking) where he discusses these topics and others in greater detail. David also has a book and other relevant online material that may be of interest: 1) The struggle for residential water metering in England and Wales https://www.kysq.org/pubs/Art9-1-6.pdf 2) David's book (free to D/L) Living with Water Scarcity https://www.kysq.org/lwws/ 3) Citizen regulators https://kysq.org/aguanomics/2014/07/do-you-trust-your-neighbors/ Just a quick note to say thanks to the patrons. If you enjoy the podcast and want to throw a few shillings in the tip jar check out patreon.com/AtTheMargin. I hope you enjoy the converation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s guest is Anja Shortland, Professor In political economy at King’s College London. Prof. Shortland does some really interesting work on the economics of crime and will speak to us today about the economic dynamics at play in hostage situations. Yes, that's correct – today’s episode is on the economics of kidnapping! Prof. Shortland has a book entitled "Kidnap" that I would recommend if you would like to learn more about this topic. Don't forget the patreon - www.patreon.com/AtTheMargin. If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support this work, please consider subscribing to the patreon. Thanks! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and wlecome to this episode of "At the margin"! I have a great episode lined up with Tim Harford, Oxford economist and all-round economic raconteur. Tim joins to discuss statistics – how we can get it wrong, such as when our emotions influence our interpretation, and offers some basic rules of thumb when it comes to making sense of the information we see around us. Tim’s most recent book is entitled "How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers". Available: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Make-World-Add-Up/dp/1408712237 If you enjoy the podcast, you can subscribe to the patreon at patreon.com/AtTheMargin. We’re on twitter and Instagram with the handle @AtTheMargin too. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome everyone to a special week for the podcast! We have a change in name to "At the Margin" – same great podcast, new great name! this week we have a very special double bill. In this first part we welcome Prof. Patrick Honohan, honorary professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin. Prof. Honohan has held many positions, most notably as governor of the Irish Central Bank during the financial crisis of 2008. He has also held positions at the ESRI, the World Bank and as economic advisor to Garret FitzGerald. We discuss the role of Central Banks, the financial crisis from his perspective and Prof. Honohan gives his view on financial regulation into the future Prof. Honohan has recently published a book entitled "Currency, Credit and Crisis" which discusses much of the material covered in the episode in greater detail. It is highly recommended: https://www.easons.com/currency-credit-and-crisis-patrick-honohan-9781108741583?gclid If you enjoy the podcast, you can subscribe to the patreon at www.patreon.com/AtTheMargin. I’ve updated the patreon handle to reflect the new name. We’re on twitter and Instagram with the handle @AtTheMargin too. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.