http://hdl.handle.net/2262/62013 2017-11-03T02:45:10Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/61830 The influence of domestic and international interest rates on the ISEQ Bredin, Don; Gavin, Caroline; O'Reilly, Gerard We investigate the influence of international and domestic monetary policy shocks on the Irish stock market. Specifically, we analyse the impact of (un)expected changes in domestic, US, UK and German/euro area policy rates on the ISEQ between 1988 to 2002 in an event type study. Our decomposition of (un)expected changes in policy rates are based on futures markets and is akin to Kuttner (2001). In the absence of an Irish interest rate futures market, we use a more indirect method by appealing to the expectations theory of the term structure of interest rates. Overall, our results suggest that, with the exception of the US, unanticipated changes in domestic and international interest rates appear to have little significant influence on the Irish stock market. Paper presented at the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Irish Economic Association, Limerick, 2003 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/61584 The effect of attendance on grade for first year economics students in University College Cork Kirby, Ann; McElroy, Brendan This paper examines the relationship between attendance and grade, controlling for other factors, in first year economics courses in University College Cork. Determinants of both class attendance and grade are specified and estimated. We find that attendance is low, at least by comparison with US evidence. Hours worked and travel time are among the factors affecting class attendance. Class attendance, and especially tutorial attendance has a positive and diminishing marginal effect on grade, while hours worked in a part-time job have a significant negative effect on grade. Paper presented at the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Irish Economic Association, Limerick, 2003 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/61015 Direct measures of time preference Ventura, Luigi This work constitutes an attempt to estimate time preference factors in a direct way from survey data, without relying on consumption data and on particular estimation techniques. By using microeconomic data obtained from the Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth (for the year 2000) and a simple second order Taylor expansion of a generic utility function we will compute, for each agent, a utility discount factor. The interesting features of the dataset will also enable us to relate discount factors to a large number of social, economic, and demographic variables. Agents do appear to discount future utility flows at rates which vary across age, education, civil status, income and wealth situations; more importantly, it is suggested that risk and market incompleteness should be considered as important determinants of time preference parameters. 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/60947 Contraception and the Celtic Tiger Bloom, David E.; Canning, David New cross-country evidence for 1965 to 1995 is presented on the link that runs from population change to economic growth. The estimates indicate that demographic change is a powerful determinant of income growth, operating mainly via the effect of changes in age structure. The estimates also indicate that the benefits of demographic change can be greatly magnified by a favourable policy environment. A case study of economic growth in Ireland suggests that the legalisation of contraception in 1980 resulted in a sharp decline in fertility and a sizeable increase in the relative share of the working-age population. This demographic shift, operating in conjunction with a favourable policy environment, can explain in large measure the birth of the Celtic Tiger. However, given demographic projections for Ireland, the Tiger?s roar may become less formidable as it continues to mature. This paper is based on an invited presentation made on April 25, 2003 to the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Irish Economic Association in Limerick, Ireland 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z