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A blog from the Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service

Economy and Finance Blog Archive

Here you will find an archive of Economy and Finance Blog articles published before 1 May 2022, divided into their relevant categories.

Economy

Map showing the impact of the Protocol, the IMA and Joint Committee declaration on NI to GB trade in goods, compiled by RaISe
This blog article complements the Assembly Research and Information Paper Internal Market Act 2020 and the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland. It explains Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements. including how…
An image showing the start of the Giro d'Italia bike race with Parliament Buildings, Stormont in the background
This article draws on recent experiences of Government-funded sporting events in Northern Ireland (NI), highlighting a number of those events, in particular their economic and social benefits. Such past…
This blog post provides an overview of Northern Ireland’s (NI) current position with regard to trade in goods and updates our previous blog on NI’s trade in goods in…

Employment and Labour Market

An image showing a shop sign that says 'Sorry, we're closed'
Recent figures show a decline in part-time work in Northern Ireland (NI) since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.[1] This article describes recent job losses and investigates their impact…
An image showing members of staff doing 'high fives'
By Michael Scholes & Aidan Stennett To highlight International Women’s Day, the following article updates our previous blog article examining the Gender Pay Gap in Northern Ireland, presenting the…
A graph comparing Northern Ireland median hourly pay by industry and gender for 2019
By Michael Scholes & Aidan Stennett To highlight International Women’s Day, the following article updates our previous blog article examining the Gender Pay Gap in Northern Ireland, presenting the…

Energy

Image of wind farm in front of a setting sun
There was considerable growth in the development of renewable electricity over the previous Northern Ireland Assembly mandate. Changes to renewable electricity support may impact the ability to achieve similar levels…

Enterprise and Investment

This post examines financial support provided by Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) to businesses located in Northern Ireland (NI) from 2013-14 to 2017-18, identifying key impacts arising from that…

Finance

Figure 1: Resources allocated at Monitoring Rounds 2011-12 to 2015-16
Later this month, the new Minister of Finance will announce the outcome of the Executive’s June Monitoring Round. But what is a Monitoring Round, and what opportunities does it…
What is ‘outcomes-based budgeting’, and what are the key benefits and limitations of using it?…
The figure shows that DAERA, the Department of the Economy, the Department of Finance and the Executive Office all received cuts for 2017-17 from their baseline. The Departments of Communities, Health, and Justice all received increase from their baselines.
How were resources allocated to the nine Executive departments, and how much did they get? On 13th January 2016 the Minister of Finance and Personnel published the Executive’s single…

Research and Innovation

Copy of the Northern Ireland Executive’s Economic Strategy and the Programme for Government Consultation Document
By Eóin Murphy, Michael Scholes, and Aidan Stennett The Northern Ireland Executive is currently revising its Economic Strategy.  What are the key factors it should take into consideration when…