Till Debt Do Us Part : Financial implications of the divorce of the Irish Free State from the United Kingdom, 1922–1926
(2020) In European Review of Economic History 24(4). p.818-842- Abstract
- In this paper, we discuss the apportionment of national debt when Ireland exited the UK in 1922. We estimate that the claim on Ireland amounted to 80 percent of Irish Gross National Product (G.N.P.) and describe how it was ultimately waived at the expense of an unchanged land border with Northern Ireland. While this represents the largest debt relief episode in the twentieth century, the political cost of the agreement exceeded the financial gain in the long run. We find that domestic markets reacted more to political uncertainty than the pending liability, despite the financial stability which resulted from the debt write-down.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/57e3a329-e965-4080-b73b-69c5c8a91142
- author
- FitzGerald, John and Kenny, Sean LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2020-05-23
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Political Economy, Ireland, United Kingdom, Debt Resolution, Border, Public Debt, Financial Agreement
- in
- European Review of Economic History
- volume
- 24
- issue
- 4
- article number
- heaa004
- pages
- 25 pages
- publisher
- Oxford University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85096345847
- ISSN
- 1474-0044
- DOI
- 10.1093/ereh/heaa004
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 57e3a329-e965-4080-b73b-69c5c8a91142
- date added to LUP
- 2020-06-12 09:26:08
- date last changed
- 2022-04-18 22:48:58
@article{57e3a329-e965-4080-b73b-69c5c8a91142, abstract = {{In this paper, we discuss the apportionment of national debt when Ireland exited the UK in 1922. We estimate that the claim on Ireland amounted to 80 percent of Irish Gross National Product (G.N.P.) and describe how it was ultimately waived at the expense of an unchanged land border with Northern Ireland. While this represents the largest debt relief episode in the twentieth century, the political cost of the agreement exceeded the financial gain in the long run. We find that domestic markets reacted more to political uncertainty than the pending liability, despite the financial stability which resulted from the debt write-down.}}, author = {{FitzGerald, John and Kenny, Sean}}, issn = {{1474-0044}}, keywords = {{Political Economy; Ireland; United Kingdom; Debt Resolution; Border; Public Debt; Financial Agreement}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{05}}, number = {{4}}, pages = {{818--842}}, publisher = {{Oxford University Press}}, series = {{European Review of Economic History}}, title = {{Till Debt Do Us Part : Financial implications of the divorce of the Irish Free State from the United Kingdom, 1922–1926}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heaa004}}, doi = {{10.1093/ereh/heaa004}}, volume = {{24}}, year = {{2020}}, }