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The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of institutional factors in agricultural structural change in the European Union (EU) using the case study of land mobility in Ireland. A range of agricultural land use options are compared in order to examine the effect of domestic and EU policy instruments on land mobility.

Using socio-economic data from the Teagasc National Farm Survey, three hypothetical farms are created using a microsimulation approach to compare incomes across farm systems and land use options. Tax and subsidy policies are applied to derive returns for the hypothetical farms under a variety of land use scenarios.

The analysis finds that in comparing four hypothetical scenarios, leasing out agricultural land on a long-term basis can prove more profitable for cattle and tillage farmers than farming the land. Only dairy farmers derive consistently higher disposable incomes from farming their land as opposed to leasing it out. Changes in CAP rules can also negatively affect farmers taking advantage of Ireland’s tax-based leasing incentives.

A gap in the literature exists in terms of how institutional factors may act to prevent either land supply or demand channels from functioning properly. This paper addresses that gap, using Ireland as a case study.

Although they are neighbouring Asian countries with many similarities, India and Indonesia have different levels of household expenditure inequality. During the end of 2000s, the Gini coefficient of Indonesia was 9.1 percentage points larger than the Gini coefficient of India. To understand the determinants of this difference, this study decomposes it into the contribution of price effects, demographic effects and labour market structure effects. Differences in expenditure structures (price effects) and demographic characteristics are found to be the greatest contributors to the inequality gap across the two countries. The difference in the education distribution of household heads also has a positive and significant impact on the inequality gap. Differences in the labour market structure, on the other hand, turn out to be less important.

There is a body of evidence that indicates mental illnesses are more prevalent in urban settings. However, to date no research has been carried out on the urban/rural incidence of mental illness in Ireland. This paper seeks to examine the micro level determinants of admissions to psychiatric hospitals between urban and rural areas.

Data from the National Psychiatric In‐patient Reporting System (NPIRS) and multivariate regression models are used.

Results from this analysis found that, in Ireland, rural residents had a higher probability of being admitted to a psychiatric hospital for schizophrenia and depression compared to urban residents.

The results presented here are only applicable to individuals that have been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Findings cannot be extrapolated to the general population. Future research will involve the simulation of mental health characteristics for the entire Irish population.

The analysis presented in the paper contributes to the current understanding of the social and spatial profile of psychiatric admissions in Ireland, whilst providing additional research to the international debate regarding urban/rural differentials in acute psychiatric hospital admissions.