The Local Impact of the Marine Sector in Ireland

Abstract

Much economic policy focuses on increasing or maintaining employment at a national level. However, within the EU, the move to a single market and the increased rate of globalisation has led to a recognition that not all regions would benefit from trade liberalisation. This has led to an increased focus on sub-national policies which require local development strategies. Based on their ability to recreate a complete population distribution across numerous attributes and the need for alternative frameworks to traditional macro-level modelling, spatial microsimulation methodologies have become accepted tools in the evaluation of economic and social policy. Using a spatial microsimulation model this paper seeks to estimate the spatial distribution of marine sector workers and the contribution of their income to the local economy. The spatially references outputs on employment and income generated by the microsimulation model may be used to assess the impact of the sector on the local economy in Ireland. Policy conclusions are then drawn.