Regional Employment Performance of Irish Industry, 1972-96: A Job Flow Analysis

JEL Classification R11 & R58

Aidan Meyler and Eric Strobl

Research Department, Central Bank of Ireland, Dublin 2, Ireland and Department of Economics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Abstract

Regional goals have always played an important part in Irish industrial policy. This paper examines the employment performance of two sub-regions (designated and non-designated areas) as defined by industrial policy. By employing the job flow methodology as pioneered by Davis and Haltiwanger (1990) we find that the convergence in employment levels between designated and non-designated areas observed in the aggregate since 1972 has been largely driven by a higher rate of creation of jobs, that are, on average, more persistent, in the designated areas. This difference in job creation rate, however, cannot be attributed to any marked differences in the employment performance by plant size or nationality of ownership type.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Finbarr Tumelty and Denis Slater for their generous assistance. Comments given at a workshop at Forfas and at the 1997 IEA Annual Conference, Athlone, were also greatly appreciated. All remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the authors.