Abstract

Ireland, one of the smallest countries in the European Union, has been attracting worldwide attention from economists and policy makers for the tremendous progress it has made in the past three decades. At one point of time, Ireland was deemed an economic failure, a country that after years of mismanagement was suffering from high unemployment, slow growth, high inflation, heavy taxation and towering public debts. But the country’s impressive progress since then has made it the “Celtic Tiger”. After a downward trend coinciding with the American slowdown in 2001-02, the economy is bouncing back. Growth in 2004 and 2005 is expected to be around 4-5%. Can the Celtic tiger maintain this lead in the coming years?

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

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Keywords

Ireland, Ireland's history, The Irish model, Irish Economy, Foreign Investment in Ireland, Labor Markets in Ireland and Irish politics