IES?

Interesting comment over on irisheconomy.ie about the lack of a GES type institution in Ireland.

Over here in the UK, it gets a good plugging and I know around 20-30% of my course have applied for it.

What do you guys think? Personally, I am not so sure. I don't agree with the comments that Central Bank or ESRI fulfill this role but I can see any comments made by such a body being ignored or suppressed.

The one positive thing I think is that if there were published comments on all major policy decisions, then it makes it hard for the politicians to claim ignorance of what they were doing.

Flamed Diving

Deleted User wrote: »

Interesting comment over on irisheconomy.ie about the lack of a GES type institution in Ireland.

Over here in the UK, it gets a good plugging and I know around 20-30% of my course have applied for it.

What do you guys think? Personally, I am not so sure. I don't agree with the comments that Central Bank or ESRI fulfill this role but I can see any comments made by such a body being ignored or suppressed.

The one positive thing I think is that if there were published comments on all major policy decisions, then it makes it hard for the politicians to claim ignorance of what they were doing.

Meh. It would just be another group of economists for politicians to ignore and then somehow blame for 'not seeing it coming'. That said, it would mean more job opportunities for us bad guys!



EDIT: Reading Tol's last response:

As long as the attitude of our dear leaders is to decide first and ask questions later, you can create any amount of government services to no avail.

Spot on.

The GES isn't a separate body, it's the economics track of the civil service "faststream", their graduate recruitment scheme. They take on ~100 people each year in various departments.

My impresssion of the civil service, is that no matter your qualifications, you'll have to spend a couple of years pushing paper and doing other work you're overqualified for. This is a pretty unattractive proposition for someone holding a masters degree or better in economics. If the government wants to attract better candidates into the civil service, it needs a scheme like the GES and Faststream. If the political parties in this country want to keep putting lawyers as Ministers for Finance, the least they could do is put a team of highly qualified experts behind them.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

The GES isn't a separate body, it's the economics track of the civil service "faststream", their graduate recruitment scheme. They take on ~100 people each year in various departments.

My impresssion of the civil service, is that no matter your qualifications, you'll have to spend a couple of years pushing paper and doing other work you're overqualified for. This is a pretty unattractive proposition for someone holding a masters degree or better in economics. If the government wants to attract better candidates into the civil service, it needs a scheme like the GES and Faststream. If the political parties in this country want to keep putting lawyers as Ministers for Finance, the least they could do is put a team of highly qualified experts behind them.

I know some people who are now on the program. They start work as 'economists' when they begin. It seems to be second favourite to the consultancy firms, but there are some smart guys from my course on it.
I was going to apply but the two really interesting aren't really going to to go to non nationals: Foreign Affairs and Defence.

nesf

Deleted User wrote: »

My impresssion of the civil service, is that no matter your qualifications, you'll have to spend a couple of years pushing paper and doing other work you're overqualified for. This is a pretty unattractive proposition for someone holding a masters degree or better in economics. If the government wants to attract better candidates into the civil service, it needs a scheme like the GES and Faststream. If the political parties in this country want to keep putting lawyers as Ministers for Finance, the least they could do is put a team of highly qualified experts behind them.

Well, after going to the trouble and expense of getting a PhD in Economics why would you be satisfied starting out at the bottom? Ditto for people with academic and professional qualifications in IT.

Time Magazine

nesf wrote: »

Well, after going to the trouble and expense of getting a PhD in Economics why would you be satisfied starting out at the bottom? Ditto for people with academic and professional qualifications in IT.