higher average incomes) and the costs of higher volatility (income varies more around this average) is a long-researched issue in trade economics. [xviii] It means we are more vulnerable to the ‘the shifts and the shocks’ in the global economy, or as Havel put it, the “tumult of the world”.
[xix] The small and open nature of the Irish economy means that it is always particularly vulnerable to shocks stemming from abroad.