| Summary: | 碩士 === 南華大學 === 歐洲研究所 === 95 === The great economic success story during the 1990s has been the Republic of Ire-land. At the end of the year 2000, Ireland could look back on fourteen years of unin-terrupted economic growth, which had accelerated to nearly 10 percent annually in the closing years of the 1990s. With this growth came markedly lower inflation, one of the lowest unemployment rates in the European Union (EU), and a growing govern-ment-budget surplus. Most dramatic, however, was the return to Ireland of young workers in increasing numbers to fill new jobs awaiting them at home. Contrast this happy state of affairs with that of the mid-1980s, when the unemployment rate reached 17 percent, emigration soared, the government’s finances were a shambles. How did the dramatic turn of events come about? What lessons, if any, might the Irish events teach others? In this article, I examine the sources of the apparent transforma-tion of the Irish economy, including European Union, Irish government and the for-eign direct investment, etc. How much was the result of conscious, farsighted gov-ernment policies? To what extent did external events play a part? All of them are the main purpose of this thesis.
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