Regional economic resilience in Ireland: the roles of industrial structure and foreign inward investment

Abstract

This paper examines the resilience of Irish regions during the course of the post-2007 economic crisis, focusing specifically on employment change in firms in receipt of assistance from the Irish government’s enterprise development agencies. The paper classifies both regions and sectors in terms of their employment performance both before and during the recession and employs a number of techniques to assess the roles of sectoral composition, firm nationality and other factors in shaping the recession’s regional impact. While nationality mix is significant, sectoral composition is seen as having a more important impact on regional employment performance. Other factors also have an important role in some regions, but their precise nature remains unknown.