Eoin O'Malley

Foreign direct investment was a major part of the explanation for the boom. A substantial surge in FDI coming into the EU was brought on by the Single European Market and by the rise of new high-tech industries. Ireland’s share of FDI in the EU was increased by Ireland’s existing tax incentives being particularly attractive for the type of companie...

The first section of this chapter presents a survey of the literature that has aimed to explain what caused the boom. It aims to discuss virtually all the economic explanations that have been put forward. These include fiscal stabilisation, tax cuts, delayed or belated convergence, strong demand growth in export markets, supply of labour, education...

The Celtic tiger boom was a major departure from previous experience since the Irish economy had a long previous history of relative weakness compared to many other European countries. The Irish economy had a chronic problem with insufficient generation of employment, resulting in high rates of emigration, as well as relatively low incomes. Previou...

There was a substantial improvement in the growth of indigenous manufacturing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but its performance became unsatisfactory later. In indigenous services, there was also a significant improvement and the trends mostly remained better for longer. New industrial policy measures were partly responsible for the improvemen...

This chapter analyses the contributions of different sectors to economic growth during the boom, focusing particularly on the contributions of sectors to exports because, in a small and very open economy, export growth makes an essential contribution that drives the rest of the economy. As an essential part of this, it examines the net foreign earn...

The boom ended in 2007. Although export growth slowed down as early as 2000, that trend was not very serious for the economy because the growth of net foreign earnings did not slow down, due to the changing sectoral composition of exports. The growth of net foreign earnings slowed down eventually in 2005, primarily because foreign-owned manufacturi...

A prolonged surge in FDI became the main driver of the boom, especially in the 1990s. Initially, this mainly involved high-tech manufacturing, with services becoming increasingly prominent later. The high-tech manufacturing sectors were less important in terms of net foreign earnings than they appeared to be in terms of exports, while the reverse w...

SUMMARY This article accepts the dependency school's emphasis on analysing characteristics of the international capitalist system as necessary for understanding the causes of underdevelopment. The competitive advantages of industrial producers in developed countries are outlined, together with the limitations on the potential for ‘late’ industriali...

Why do organisations 'leave money on the floor' by neglecting highly cost effective measures to improve energy efficiency? This question lies at the heart of policy debates over climate change and is a focus of continuing dispute within energy economics. This book explores the nature, operation and relative importance of different barriers to energ...

Since the mid-1980s, the software industry has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the Irish economy. This article examines the causes of the degree of success which the Irish indigenous software industry has attained in terms of growth and international competitiveness. In exploring the development of its competitive advantage we examine, i...

This paper examines the importance of industrial clusters, and the relevance of Porter's diamond model, in the context of the small open economy of Ireland. It analyses the experience of three relatively successful Irish indigenous sectors and it considers to what extent have clusters of related or connected industries been important in accounting...

Studies by Porter (1990) and others find that competitive and successful industries usually occur in the form of clusters of industries which are linked together through vertical or horizontal relationships. This paper assesses whether the sectors of Irish indigenous industry which look most competitive and successful form such clusters. We also co...

Studies by Porter (1990) and others find that competitive and successful industries usually occur in the form of clusters of industries which are linked together through vertical or horizontal relationships. This paper assesses whether the sectors of Irish indigenous industry which look most competitive and successful form such clusters. It is conc...

At the end of the 20th century with stagnating industrial output, unemployment in many European countries has climbed to levels not seen since the 1930s. Interventionist industrial policies thus find new popularity after the gentle flirtation with liberalization in the early 1990s. Under the Maastricht Treaty, the European Union was granted industr...

From the early 1930s to the late 1950s high tariff barriers and a broad prohibition on foreign ownership of firms operating in Ireland were the cornerstone of policies designed to promote growth of indigenous manufacturing from the very low base inherited at independence in 1922. By the late 1950s it was clear that protectionism had long outlived i...

Outlines explanations suggested for the longterm decline. By contrasting the nature of industrial decline in most of island with the specific patterns of successful industrialisation in the NE it is argued that the main causes of decline lay in the strong tendencies to industrial centralisation in Britain and Ireland. Concludes that this experience...