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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

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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…
An image showing a tablet in use
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…
The Nazareth Church on Berlin-Wedding’s Leopold Square with new seating area and ornamental fountains
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

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

A mole emerging from molehill (image by Stefan Didam and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons)
Has the Chancellor’s statement had the mountainous impact on the Executive’s budget that was expected?…
A word cloud for Explanatory and Financial Memoranda
In the 2011-16 Assembly Mandate, MLAs debated, scrutinised and passed a range of legislation across a number of policy areas – from Mental Capacity to Licensing of Pavement Cafes,…
Image of a blackboard, with the words 'Is prevention better than cure?'
In recent years ‘Preventative Expenditure‘ (PE) has gained a high level of political consensus. There are many definitions, and this imprecision has resulted in departments sometimes claiming that all…

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…