Ireland’s Economy Is Like a Billionaire Tech Bro: Lionel Laurent

Think of Ireland as Europe’s tech bro. The country is fairly young, with a median age of 38.8. It’s rich, with a gross domestic product per capita close to Luxembourg’s. And it’s hooked on Big Tech, with Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. among the multinationals accounting for one-third of total employment in terms of pay and more than half of its corporate tax take.

Much like the real-life billionaires dominating Silicon Valley, though, the Irish economy has some growing up to do.

Ireland opened up to world trade relatively recently (in the 1960s), and its transformation from one of Europe’s poorest countries into one ...