The Changing Faces of Ireland

Steve Song (formerly of Geary and now with George Fox University, Oregon), Merike Darmody (ESRI) and Naomi Tyrrell (Plymouth) are the editors of a new book on immigration in Ireland.

The Changing Faces of Ireland: Exploring the Lives of Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Children

“Before the economic boom of the 1990s, Ireland was known as a nation of emigrants. The past fifteen years, however, have seen the transformation of Ireland from a country of net emigration to one of net immigration, on a scale and at a pace unprecedented in comparative context. As a result, Irish society has become more diverse in terms of nationality, language, ethnicity and religious affiliation; and these changes are now clearly reflected in the composition of both primary and secondary schools, presenting these with challenges as well as opportunities. Despite the increased number of ethnically-diverse immigrant children and young people in the Ireland, currently there is a paucity of information about aspects of their lives in Ireland. This book is aimed at contributing to this gap in knowledge.

This edited collection will be of interest to researchers in the fields of migration studies, childhood studies, education studies, human geography, sociology, applied social studies, social work, health studies and psychology. It will also be a useful resource to educators, social workers, youth workers and community members working with (or preparing to work with) children with immigrant and ethnic minority backgrounds in Ireland.”

More details.

Funding your IRA

Just in the interests of cultural understanding, I should probably explain to US readers of the blog why it is that Irish people start laughing when the US pension system is described to them. I have a document in front of me that tells me that funding an IRA is a great way to save for retirement. You can even choose between the traditional IRA or a new type of IRA. I think after reading this literature for so long the urge to laugh every time I hear people talk about this has died down but only a little bit. The IRA to most Americans is, of course, the Individual Retirement Accounts that many people use to save for retirement. For most Irish people the IRA (Irish Republican Army) is a republican paramilitary organisation mainly based in the North of Ireland. So with very little imagination, you can have a great laugh reading glossy brochures warning you what might happen if you don't pay your IRA contributions or helping you choose the IRA that is right for you or looking through the IRA websites of large financial companies. And all the time remembering that no matter how old you are it's never too late to start making your IRA contributions!

Almlund, Duckworth, Heckman and Kautz IZA Paper: Personality Psychology and Economics

Personality Psychology and EconomicsAuthor info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Almlund, Mathilde (almlund@uchicago.edu) (University of Chicago)
Duckworth, Angela Lee (duckwort@psych.upenn.edu) (University of Pennsylvania)
Heckman, James J. (jjh@uchicago.edu) (University of Chicago)
Kautz, Tim (tkautz@uchicago.edu) (University of Chicago)

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Mathilde Almlund
James J. Heckman
Abstract

This paper explores the power of personality traits both as predictors and as causes of academic and economic success, health, and criminal activity. Measured personality is interpreted as a construct derived from an economic model of preferences, constraints, and information. Evidence is reviewed about the "situational specificity" of personality traits and preferences. An extreme version of the situationist view claims that there are no stable personality traits or preference parameters that persons carry across different situations. Those who hold this view claim that personality psychology has little relevance for economics. The biological and evolutionary origins of personality traits are explored. Personality measurement systems and relationships among the measures used by psychologists are examined. The predictive power of personality measures is compared with the predictive power of measures of cognition captured by IQ and achievement tests. For many outcomes, personality measures are just as predictive as cognitive measures, even after controlling for family background and cognition. Moreover, standard measures of cognition are heavily influenced by personality traits and incentives. Measured personality traits are positively correlated over the life cycle. However, they are not fixed and can be altered by experience and investment. Intervention studies, along with studies in biology and neuroscience, establish a causal basis for the observed effect of personality traits on economic and social outcomes. Personality traits are more malleable over the life cycle compared to cognition, which becomes highly rank stable around age 10. Interventions that change personality are promising avenues for addressing poverty and disadvantage.

The Science of Science Policy

I recently discovered the Science of Science Policy website, affiliated to the United States (U.S.) Office of Science and Technology Policy. The U.S. Congress established the Office of Science and Technology Policy in 1976 with a "broad mandate to advise the President... on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs". The goal of the Science of Science Policy community is to "provide a scientifically rigorous and quantitative basis for science policy. The website provides a central location with news, information and research to help inform the Federal Government's science management decisions".

Closely related, the Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP) program was established at the U.S. National Science Foundation in 2005 in response to a call from John Marburger III for a "specialist scholarly community" to study the science of science policy. The program has three major goals: "advancing evidence-based science and innovation policy decision making; building a scientific community to study science and innovation policy; and leveraging the experience of other countries. A recent Science article highlights some of the issues addressed by SciSIP researchers."

Seventy-five SciSIP awards have been made to date. The awardees include economists, sociologists, political scientists, and psychologists as well as domain scientists. Some recent SciSIP awards (full abstracts available) which might be of interest to readers include Applied Visual Analytics for Economic Decision-Making and Universities, Innovation and Economic Growth. A report in the New York Times, from a couple of years ago, highlights a dataset that SciSIP funded jointly with the Kauffman Foundation, noting that it "tracks government-sponsored research for science and engineering and links it with government start-ups, patents, and other data. One goal of the research is to identify the characteristics of star innovators, scientists who are most effective in ushering research advances into the marketplace."

Public Sector Unions and Reforms

The current Becker-Posner debate on public sector unions may be of interest to some of the readers here.

I have a feeling unions take on a reflexive life force of their own and often don't accurately reflect the entire preferences of their members. Though I appreciate this may be dubbed rather sanguine it does seem to me that narrowly conceived matters of 'procedural fairness' dominate disputes, and even rulings; beyond reason. The recent rulings on regal privilege days enjoyed by civil servants (and central bankers) seems to demonstrated this.

In any event these issues are likely to become more prevalent once the 'fire' in the banking sector gets under control.

As a thought on this: are social partners able to sit down and discuss national issues other than pay increases and holiday benefits? If not we might question the whole process of partnership agreement that was engaged in over the past 15-20 years. The honest concept of social partnership should not be lost; the arguments for it are now probably as strong as ever. Its up to government to make them! and get all the partners back in the room, on a regular basis.

Shane O'Mara: Psychology and the Crash

TCD Neuroscience Professor, Shane O'Mara, sketches a number of potential cognitive biases that might have underlay the Irish economic crash in this article (from http://www.irishscience.wordpress.com). Testing the extent to which particular psychological mechanisms can cause macroeconomic fluctuations is a tricky excercise but the article provides much food for thought in terms of potential mechanisms.