Iván Carballo Romero

124103545

ASSIGNMENT 1
Iván Carballo Romero
124103545
4º Business
23th of February 2024

This is to certify that the work I am submitting is my own and has been done by me
solely and not in consultation with anyone else or using AI generation software.
Neither I nor anyone else have submitted this work for assessment, either at
University College Cork or elsewhere. I have read and understood the regulations
of University College Cork concerning plagiarism. Where breaches of the
declaration are detected, these will be reviewed under UCC student conduct and
plagiarism policies. Any breach of the examination rules is a serious issue and can
incur penalties.

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1. Introduction
For this work I have selected 3 regions of Ireland: Dublin, Midlands and South
East. The objective is to evaluate the economic performance of these three
regions over time through different economic indicators but with an emphasis
on GDP. We will use GDP per capita, employment and average growth of the
regions among others.

2. Data Selection
For the study I selected data provided by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of
Ireland as it is the most complete and provided the most accurate data
compared to Eurostat and the OECD. I selected data from 2010 to 2021 as
these were the latest data provided by the CSO.

3. Data analysis
First, let's look at GDP, population and employment data for the different
regions. Dublin is the capital of Ireland and having more inhabitants it is normal
that the GDP is higher so what really interests us is to see the evolution of GDP
and other estimators over time, as well as their behavior to the various crises,
for this I have developed the geometrical annual growth rate to see the
behavior of the different regions to the health crisis.

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3.1. GDP

GDP
250000

200000

150000

100000

50000

0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Dublin Midland South-East

As can be seen in the graph, GDP has evolved steadily for the 3 regions, as the 3
trends are very similar. For a more in-depth analysis I have studied the annual
variation of GDP to compare their growth.

GDP Growth (%)

60.00%

50.00%

40.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
-10.00%

Dublin Midland South-East

In this graph we can see how midland is having the most constant growth and
above that of Dublin, it makes sense since Dublin being such a big city already has
a lower capacity for development. On the other hand, South-East is having a
higher average growth than the other two regions, however we can see that the
trend is not as stable as it is in Dublin and Midland, having years like 2013 where

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the GDP decreased and years like 2020 where the health crisis seriously affected
the GDP of that region.
We are also going to analyze the GDP per Capita, which is the GDP per person, it
is calculated as follows: GDP per Capita = GDP/Population.

GDP per Capita

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Dublin Midland South-East

As can be seen, the GDP per capita is much higher in Dublin, Midland and South
East are more equal, but since Dublin is a city with greater investment, both
national and international, it manages to be more productive and therefore this
figure is higher.
3.2. Employment
Employment is a very important variable when it comes to seeing the economic
performance of a region, in addition, a high percentage of employment contributes
to the state of well-being since having a job gives you the security of being able to
pay your rent, be able to eat and have some leisure, or so it should be. Ireland is a
developed country, it has one of the highest GDP per capita in Europe and an
unemployment rate of less than 5%, which is very good if we compare it with other
countries like Spain, which is around 11%. Next we will analyze the Output per
worker of each region, which is calculated as follows: Output per worker = GDP/
Employment.

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Output Per Worker

300

250

200

150

100

50

0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Dublin Midland South-East

As we can see here the output per worker is pretty higher in Dublin, it has sense
since there will be probably more industry than in the other regions so work should
have more impact in economy. To analyze these data in greater detail, we are
going to see the annual evolution of this parameter in the different regions.

Annual Growth Output per Worker (%)

30.000%

25.000%

20.000%

15.000%

10.000%

5.000%

0.000%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
-5.000%

-10.000%

Dublin Midland South-East

As we can see, Dublin, being an already developed city and therefore with less
capacity for improvement, output per worker is more stable. However, Midland and
South East present a more unstable behavior in terms of workers' contribution to
GDP. This may be due to different factors such as technological development,
country policies or variations in GDP components such as an increase/decrease in
imports/exports.

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3.3. Geometrical Annual Average Growth Rate
The Geometrical Annual Average Growth Rate is the average return of an
investment over time. I have selected two periods, from 2010-2019 and 2020-2021.
This is because in 2020 we had the sanitary crisis so we want to study the
behaviour of the 3 regions during that time.

Geometrical Annual Average Growth Rate

14.00%

12.00%

10.00%

8.00%

6.00%

4.00%

2.00%

0.00%
Dublin Midland South-East
-2.00%

2010-2019 2020-2021

As we can see, South East was the most affected region of these 3, Dublin and
Midland had a good performance and regarding the 2010-2019 stage, Midland's
performance was the lowest, South East had the highest performance but as we
have As seen in other ratios, it is the most volatile Region of these 3.

4. Conclusions
Based on the analysis of the three regions of Ireland: Dublin, South East and
Midland, I can highlight the following:
Dublin seems to be the most productive and economically robust region of the 3.
The GDP is higher than in the other regions as the GDP per capita indicating a
higher wealth on average compared to South East and Midland.
Productivity is also higher in Dublin as we can se in the Output per worker graph.
This high level of productivity can be attributed in part to concentrated
technological development in the region, which drives innovation and economic
growth.
On the other hand, South East shows signs of economic volatility, suggesting a
lack of stability in its economic activity. This volatility can pose challenges to

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sustainable growth and long-term prosperity in the region. Midland seems to be
less volatile but also it is not as developed as Dublin.
In summary, the available data supports the conclusion that Dublin is the most
productive and economically sound region of the three. Its high level of GDP,
higher GDP per capita, and evidence of robust productivity position it as the best
region in economic terms compared to the South East and Midland.
5. References

 https://data.cso.ie/#
 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database
 https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/21542/dublin/population
 https://consult.fingal.ie/ga/consultation/draft-dublin-airport-local-area-plan/
chapter/63-dublin-city-region-economy
 https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/southern-irish-counties-are-eus-
richest-region/a647546658.html