Ireland was promoted as austerity’s success model despite weak recovery evidence
Evidence
Under the troika Ireland has endured round after round of austerity. Because of this Ireland is often held up as a role model for austerity, implying that things are getting better and that austerity is working. As ex-ECB head Jean Claude Trichet put it in 2010, “Greece has a role model and that role model is Ireland.” But if one looks at the economic consequences of the bust and the bailout, it’s hard to see the recovery. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 632
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the critique that austerity’s ‘success stories’ are constructed narratives rather than empirical recoveries, echoing the Irish case in later European debt debates. — connects to: Ireland replicated Iceland’s boom-bust collapse nearly step for step. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 631; Austerity policy triumphed despite its authors conceding weak empirical evidence — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 468; Iceland and Ireland offer a natural experiment comparing austerity with bank default — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 638 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Austerity policy triumphed despite its authors conceding weak empirical evidence
#corroborates(0.85) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 468 - Austerity’s success cases are few and possibly wrong while its failures are demonstrable
#corroborates(0.85) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 479 - Iceland and Ireland offer a natural experiment comparing austerity with bank default
#responds-to(0.80) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 638 - Ireland’s 1987 austerity case combined cuts with devaluation and wage moderation
#expands(0.80) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 565 - Expectations-based expansionary austerity theory rests on Denmark and Ireland cases
#expands(0.78) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 457 - The Baltic austerity ‘success stories’ grew from unstable credit-bubble economies
#exemplifies(0.72) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 603