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Abstract
Much economic policy focuses on increasing or maintaining employment at a national
level. However, within the EU, the move to a single market and the increased rate of
globalisation has led to a recognition that not all regions would benefit from trade
liberalisation. This has led to an increased focus on sub-national policies which
require local development strategies. Based on their ability to recreate a complete
population distribution across numerous attributes and the need for alternative
frameworks to traditional macro-level modelling, spatial microsimulation
methodologies have become accepted tools in the evaluation of economic and social
policy. Using a spatial microsimulation model this paper seeks to estimate the spatial
distribution of marine sector workers and the contribution of their income to the local
economy. The spatially references outputs on employment and income generated by
the microsimulation model may be used to assess the impact of the sector on the local
economy in Ireland. Policy conclusions are then drawn.