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Peripherality and Northern Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Iain Begg  and
David Mayes
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Extract

In writing recently about the economic problems that Northern Ireland faces (Begg and Mayes, 1994) we argued, uncontroversially, that an end to the ‘Troubles’ would significantly alter the region's prospects. Our analysis, nevertheless, focused on other factors which might be amenable to policy action. With an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland now on the cards, these other characteristics of the Northern Ireland economy must be expected to be of increased importance in determining the Province's competitiveness compared with other parts of the UK and, indeed, other regions of the European Union. In particular, Northern Ireland is a prime example of a ‘peripheral’ economy, located as it is at the North-Western corner of the EU and facing the further barrier of a sea crossing to markets other than the Republic of Ireland. It is also a region that shares a number of the characteristics of the older industrial regions of Britain, such as high unemployment, persistent emigration of working-age population and difficulties in achieving industrial restructuring (Harris et al., 1990; Harris 1991).

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 150 , November 1994 , pp. 90 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

∗

This note is based on a study carried out for the Northern Ireland Economic Council, reported in Begg and Mayes (1994). We are grateful to the Council and its Director Paul Gorecki for their support and help. The analysis and conclusions in this note are our own and do not necessarily accord with the position of the Council, its Director or staff. lain Begg is a Senior Research Officer at the Institute of Economics and Statistics in Cambridge, David Mayes who was a Senior Research Fellow at NIESR when this study was undertaken, is now Chief Manager at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

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