Showing posts with label Dublin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dublin. Show all posts

Friday, March 11, 2016

11/3/16: This Week: From Dublin...


Couple of quick deliveries from this week:

  • Enjoyed teaching my Applied Investment Management and Trading course at TCD, MSc Finance;

It has been a busy and rewarding week, so apologies for not blogging... 


Saturday, September 19, 2015

19/9/15: IBM's Global Location Trends Report


Recently released "Global Location Trends: 2015 Annual Report" by IBM should be a pleasant read for Irish policymakers. The report "outlines the latest trends in corporate location selection — where companies are locating and expanding their businesses and creating jobs around the world."

And Ireland features positively and prominently, albeit with a caveat (below).

Take, for example, jobs creation by FDI-backed firms: per report, "Ireland and Singapore remain the strongest per-capita performers among the more mature (and, therefore, higher-cost) economies"



Notice that Ireland's rank has slipped slightly in 2014 compared to 2013.

Another category where we perform really strongly is average job value:


Per report: "For the fourth year in a row, Ireland is the top ranking country in the world on this measure. It continues to attract investment projects in industries characterized by high knowledge intensity and economic value added, such as life sciences and information and communication technology (ICT). The global top 10 ranking consists primarily of mature economies with a mix of investments similar to Ireland’s".

These are pretty impressive numbers, except for one major caveat: none of the report data was adjusted for corporate inversions. So when a U.S. company moves offshore to, say, Ireland (as many did and continue to do), via a tax-optimising inversion, the results appear to be an addition to Ireland's stock of FDI and Ireland's jobs creation, whilst in reality, both are superficial at best, and beggar-thy-neighbour at worst.

Perhaps surprisingly, despite being the main focal point of FDI inflows in the Republic, Dublin did not fare too well in the urban rankings, coming in at joint 12th position in 2014 ranking, down 5 places from the 7th rank in 2013.


Overall, the positive tone of the report is more than warranted in Ireland's case.

Nonetheless, the problem of aggressive tax optimisation and sharp practices by a number of MNCs invested in Ireland should be reflected and discussed in the global rankings.

This is especially important, given the report claims to reflect quality of FDI and jobs created. Ireland attracts massive inflows of tax optimising FDI in the areas of ICT services, pharma, biotech and medical devices, with aggressive on-shoring of Intellectual Property, and dire lack of actual research jobs being created. Instead of actual research, jobs in sales and back office activities, as well as residual (lower value) research are being registered as being registered as 'Professional' or 'Scientific' and the value added by these jobs creation is often, de facto, fully reflective of tax optimisation schemes.

The report authors might want to consult some facts listed here.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

19/10/2014: IFSC: Down, Down and Down It Goes...


This data has been crowding my desktop for some time now, so might as well post it. In September this year, the new rankings of Global Financial Centres (http://www.longfinance.net/images/GFCI16_22September2014.pdf) came out for the second half of 2014. Dublin slipped to a rather less than honourable 70th place, down 4 ranks from march 2014 and 14 ranks from September 2013.

Here's the chart showing the sorry state of decline in Irish Financial Services prime centre in global position (these are primarily IFSC-linked):


So may be, just may be, having the chair of IFSC going around talking about everything political and EU is not exactly what drives excellence in the international financial services? Any ideas?..

19/10/2014: Dublin: Just 24th in the Global Centres for Talent Rankings


You know the mythology: despite 55% upper marginal tax rate in exchange for nearly zilch in public services, despite the need to pay consultants' fees and private insurance just to get basic medical care, and despite the fact that childcare runs a cost of the second mortgage, Dublin (nay, rest of Ireland too) is a great location for human capital-rich expats, especially if they command high salaries...

And now, we have:


Dublin ranks 24th in the world amongst the locations 'most appealing' for expats.

Never mind, we already have the best educated workforce in the world, so be jealous you London, NYC, Paris, and all the rest of ye in the 23-losers lot.

Source: http://www.citylab.com/work/2014/10/the-new-global-centers-for-talent/381487/

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

29/10/2013: Employment & GVA: Impact of the Crisis on European Cities

Via BusinessInsider: http://www.businessinsider.com/europes-cities-in-one-chart-2013-10 Here's a chart showing the impact of the crisis on major cities:

Notice the position of Dublin as the second or third most adversely impacted city. And notice our position in terms of GVA (Gross Value Added) growth. We also represent the worst-impacted small city in the sample. Stripping out the positive effects of growth in MNCs-driven services exports and superficial transfer pricing boom delivered by the likes of Amazon, Google et al, we would be much closer to Athens in terms of overall impact.

Monday, January 30, 2012

30/1/2012: Dublin gets horrific ranking on economy

Dubious distinction for Dublin - identified as the World's 4th Worst-Performing City (see link here): and here are the snapshots of our 'neighborhood' in the rankings:




Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-worst-performing-cities-in-the-world-2012-1#

Between, I am puzzled by the pic selected for Dublin. Can't think of where it was taken...