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
This blog article focuses on key UK Government, Northern Ireland Executive and Departmental initiatives which are currently in place to address the digital divide in Northern Ireland (NI). Following…
This blog article provides a brief overview of the ‘Digital Divide’. Drawing on the Northern Ireland experience, it explores key characteristics of the Digital Divide, as well as the…
Data recently released by the footfall-counter Springboard highlights how the number of shoppers in the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) town centres was down by a third (32.7%) when compared to…
Employment and Labour Market
By Aidan Stennett & Eóin Murphy Please note: we have posted a new version of this blog article using the most recent data, see here. This article examines the gender…
Education and training are key factors in economic progress, acting as a means of raising productivity. Whilst other factors can result in short-run economic improvements, education and training are…
The introduction of the National Living Wage (NLW) could have a number of impacts in Northern Ireland (NI), raising the earnings of those aged over 25, but potentially creating…
Energy
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
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?…
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
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…