Ireland's economy in the 1980s: stagnation and recovery - a preliminary review of the evidence

Abstract

This paper reviews recent literature on Ireland's economic experiences in the 1980s. It was a decade of EMS membership, with stagnation and a rapidly mounting debt problem followed by a sharp recovery from 1987. Controversy has surrounded both the explanations of the growth and continuing high levels of unemployment and the extent to which the recovery, which coincided with fiscal retrenchment, provides an example of expansionary fiscal contraction. Many issues remain unresolved.