I am an economist, trained at Trinity College Dublin, NUI, Galway (now called The University of Galway), and the New School for Social Research. I have held visiting research fellowships at the University of Paris and at the University of Melbourne’s School of Government, where I was on sabbatical in 2018, and where I remain a Senior Fellow.
My research interests centre around understanding the Irish economy through a detailed analysis of its public finances over time. This is often called ‘stock flow consistent’ analysis. I am interested in public policy problems of all kinds, and so I have published widely in macroeconomic modeling, health workforce planning and health economics, as well as more traditional public-sector economics.
In my 20 years as an academic I have published 50+ peer-reviewed articles, 4 books, and 15+ book chapters. Of these publications 16 look at the Irish state, its finances, and its future.
Most recently I have focused considerable attention on austerity, currently one of the most prominent issue in the field of public sector management.
There are three major themes to my research.
- Understanding the evolution of national financial systems.
- Assessing the performance of the Irish economy, in particular its health system.
- Understanding small open economies, particularly under conditions of austerity.