As we kick off our second year, we will introduce bonus episodes during the upcoming year. In the initial Bonus Episode, guest host Professor Stephen Kinsella chats with Professor Ciarán Casey regarding Irish economics and his books 'Policy Failures and the Irish Economic Crisis' and 'The Irish Department of Finance 1959-99'

Stephen is a Professor of Economics at the University of Limerick, Head of the Department of Economics, and Research Associate at the Rhodes Centre for International Finance at Brown University. Stephen is also a co-director of the Immersive Software Engineering programme.

Ciarán is an economic historian and Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick.

This first book seeks to understand why almost all commentators on the Irish economy were unprepared for the scale of the recent economic crisis. It analyses the public contributions from a broad range of observers, including domestic and international agencies, academics, newspapers and politicians.

Ciarán's second book: By the late 1950s Ireland had suffered three economic crises in as many decades, falling significantly behind the living standards of neighbouring countries. Yet at the turn of the millennium it had reached virtual parity. This was all the more remarkable given the economic turbulence of the 1970s and the deep recession which lasted most of the 1980s.

A major contributing factor to this historic convergence was a series of new economic and social policies pursued from the 1950s. While the cumulative effect of these was not anticipated, they produced a boom in the 1990s that was genuinely exceptional by world standards.

The Department of Finance had primary responsibility for setting economic policy throughout the period. It was also charged with a swathe of other responsibilities in its role as 'the Central Department'. Its Ministers and officials were key agents of the changes that transformed modern Ireland.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Policy-Failures-Irish-Economic-Crisis/dp/3319901818

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-90182-4

https://www.ipa.ie/government-and-politics/the-irish-department-of-finance1959-99.6029.html

This episode is produced by the KBS Digital Hub-Grzegorz Rogala