The Foundation for Fiscal Studies presents the annual Miriam Hederman O’Brien Prize to recognise outstanding contributors in the area of Irish fiscal, economic and social policy. The aim is to recognise those whose work contributes to informed discussion of key fiscal, economic and social policy issues.
Each year, nominations are invited for work that has added to the public knowledge or understanding in areas such as taxation, public expenditure and other related fiscal policy topics. The Prize aims to recognise work that focuses on practical problems rather than abstract puzzles, that raise questions about how policy impacts and might improve outcomes, or shed light on issues that really matter to the future of Ireland as a society as well as an economy.
Nominated work may include individuals or institutions with output such as research papers, reports, books, book chapters, blog posts, opinion pieces, newspaper articles, television or radio contributions/documentaries or any other method which is publicly available and which offers new and relevant insights to help inform practical policy responses to the most strategic and significant issues we need to address in Ireland.
Criteria / Eligibility
- The Prize is for work completed during the period 1 January to 31 December in a given year.
- There are no age or nationality criteria.
- No individual may be awarded the Prize more than once. Previous winners can still be nominated and may be recognised for an award other than the main prize.
- Jointly-produced work will be considered, provided that no contributor has previously been awarded the Prize.
- Work produced by an institution rather than a named or specific author may be submitted and institutions are eligible even if they have previously won the Prize
- Where funding has been provided by a third party or other organisation to support the work which is being nominated, this should be disclosed.
2023 FINALISTS
We are delighted to share with you the list of finalists for this year’s Miriam Hederman O’Brien prize. Please feel free to click on each title in order to access the material.
- An Analysis of Government Expenditure on Irish State Pensions, Parliamentary Budget Office
- CSO Frontiers Series Output: Educational Attendance and Attainment of Children in Care, 2018 – 2023, Sadhbh Whelan, The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Declan Smyth, Central Statistics Office
- Demystifying Ireland’s National Income – A Bottom-Up Analysis of GNI* and Productivity, Kevin Timoney, Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
- Finance (No.2) Bill 2023: Budgetary Issues, Parliamentary Budget Office
- Fiscal Rules – Time for a Reboot, Robert Sweeney, TASC, Rosa Canelli, University of Sannio
- Horizon Scanning – Calibrating Medium to Long-Term Economic Projections, Sarah Hogan, Luke Rehill, Department of Finance
- Job Quality in Ireland: First findings from the UCD Working in Ireland Survey 2021, Professor John Geary, UCD; Dr Lisa Wilson, NERI
- R&D Grants and R&D Tax Credits to Foreign Owned Subsidiaries: Does Supporting Multinational Enterprises R&D Pay Off in terms of Firm Performance Improvements for the Host Economy?, Helena Lenihan, UL, Kevin Mulligan, UL, Justin Doran, UCC, Christian Rammer, ZEW, Mannheim, Olubunmi Ipinnaiye, UL
- Understanding Ireland’s Top Corporation Taxpayers, Brian Cronin, Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
- What Climate Change Means for Ireland’s Public Finances, Eddie Casey, Killian Carroll, Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
PAST WINNERS
2022
The Report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare
Members and Secretariat
2021
The SAFE-PSC-MyGovID Framework for Public Service Identity Management
Ciaran Judge, Ita McGennis
Impact of Demographic Change on Health Expenditure
Clara Lindberg, Tiago McCarthy
2020
The Potential Costs and Distributional Effect of COVID-19
Keelin Byrne, Karina Doorley, Mark Regan, Barra Roantree, Dora Ruda – ESRI
The Development of a Nowcasting Methodology to Quantify the Distributional Effect of the Pandemic
Cathal O’Donoghue, John McHale – NUIG, Denis M Sologan, Iryna Kyzyma
2019
Kelly De Bruin, Aykut Mert Yakut
2018
Patterns of Firm Level Productivity in Ireland
Javier Papa, Luke Rehill, Brendan O’Connor
Lifting the Lid: The Private Financing of Motorway PPPs in Ireland
Donal Palcic, Eoin Reeves, Anne Stafford
2017
Supporting Pension Contributions Through the Tax System: Outcomes, Costs and Examining Reform
Micheál Collins, Gerard Hughes
2016
Modelling Higher Education Financing Reform for Ireland
Bruce Chapman, Aedin Doris
2015
The Financial Crisis in Ireland and Government Revenues
Rónán Hickey, Diarmaid Smyth – Central Bank of Ireland
2014
Effective Rates of Corporation Tax in Ireland
Seamus Coffey, Kate Levey
2013
Gerard Brady – IBEC