Featured Publications

Castells-Quintana, Krause DM, McDermott TKJ (2021) The Urbanising Force of Global Warming: The Role of Climate Change in the Spatial Distribution of Population, Journal of Economic Geography, forthcoming.

In this paper we combine high-resolution data on climate and population to establish a global non-linear effect of climate on urbanisation. In particular, we show that deteriorating climatic conditions are associated with more urbanisation in a global panel. At the city level, climate-driven growth seems to foster fragmentation, suggesting that as people arrive in large cities they are likely to settle on the urban fringe or in informal settlements. Link to Full Paper

Cullinan J, Denny K, Flannery D (2021) A Distributional Analysis of Upper Secondary School Performance, Empirical Economics, 60, 1085-1113.

This paper examines the relationship between the distribution of upper secondary school performance and a range of individual and school-level characteristics using unconditional quantile regression methods. It finds that determinants such as parental occupation group, maternal unemployment, extra private tuition and working part-time have differential effects for low- and high-ability students and that important insights are lost by focussing on the conditional mean. Link to Full Paper

Harold J, Bertsch V, Lawrence T, Hall M (2021) Drivers of People's Preferences for Spatial Proximity to Energy Infrastructure Technologies: A Cross-country Analysis, The Energy Journal, 42, 4. 

This study examines the factors influencing people's proximity preferences to a range of different energy technologies using a cross-country econometric analysis of the stated preference data from an unprecedented survey conducted on nationally representative samples of the population in Ireland, the U.S. and Germany. The results show that, in general, German and Irish citizens are willing to accept energy infrastructures at smaller distances to their homes than their U.S. counterparts. Moreover, attitudinal factors are found to shape people's preferences more consistently than any of the socio-demographic characteristics. Link to Full Paper

Harold J, Cullinan J, Lyons S (2020) Consumer Switching in European Retail Markets, Oxford Economic Papers, 72, 453-471.

This paper examines the factors influencing consumer switching across 14 different retail markets in 27 European countries (EU27) using a micro-econometric analysis of consumer switching behaviour data from the European Commission’s Consumer Market Monitoring Survey. The results provide evidence that consumer attitudes to various market components are highly significant factors in explaining consumer switching behaviour in the EU27. Link to Full Paper

Kocornik-Mina A, McDermott TKJ, Michaels G, Rauch F (2020) Flooded Cities, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 12, 35-66.

In this paper we examine how prevalent it is for economic activity to be concentrated in flood-prone areas and whether cities adapt to major floods by relocating economic activity to safer areas. We combine spatially disaggregated inundation maps and night lights data spanning the globe’s cities. We find that local recovery from large-scale floods is relatively quick, with little evidence of a relocation away from flood prone areas. Link to Full Paper

Läpple D, Barham B, Chavas JP (2020) The Role of Extension in Dynamic Economic Adjustments: The Case of Irish Dairy Farms, European Review of Agricultural Economics, 47, 71-94. 

This article explores the role of farm extension services in dynamic adjustments on Irish dairy farms following the announcement of EU milk quota elimination. Findings indicate positive, yet declining, impact of extension services on the dynamics of dairy herd size, specialisation and intensification. Link to Full Paper

Läpple D, Barham B (2019) How do Learning Ability, Advice from Experts and Peers Shape Decision Making? Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 80, 92-107.

This article explores how learning by doing and responsiveness to advice from experts and peers shape individual decisions based on data from a laboratory experiment. The findings reveal heterogeneous learning pace of subjects and different responses to the two distinct types of advice: subjects take relatively more advice from peers than they do from the expert. Link to Full Paper

Walsh S, Cullinan J, Flannery D (2019) Exploring Heterogeneity in Willingness to Pay for the Attributes of Higher Education Institutions, Oxford Economic Papers, 71, 203-224.

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the extent and nature of heterogeneity in willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the attributes of higher education institutions (HEIs). Using data from Ireland, mixed logit and generalized multinomial logit models are used to examine heterogeneity in WTP by region, academic ability, and socioeconomic status. The analysis shows that regional variation in WTP for the attributes of HEIs is substantial, while hterogeneity in WTP is also found based on a student’s academic ability and socio-economic group. Link to Full Paper

Harold J, Lyons S, Cullinan J (2018) Heterogeneity and Persistence in the Effect of Demand Side Management Stimuli on Residential Gas Demand, Energy Economics, 73, 135-145.

This paper explores the heterogeneous treatment effects of a DSM program on residential gas consumption across different groups of households categorised by their socio-economic and household characteristics. The paper also investigates the impact of the stimuli over time and across the distribution of daily household gas consumption. The demand stimuli are found to have very different effects across the socio-economic and dwelling characteristics of the households with older and larger households and dwellings revealed to be much more responsive to the feedback. Additionally, the results provide evidence that the impacts are persistent over time. Link to Full Paper

Doherty E, Queally M, Cullinan J, Gillespie P (2017) The Impact of Childhood Overweight and Obesity on Healthcare Utilisation, Economics and Human Biology, 27, 84-92.

This paper estimates the causal effect of child overweight and obesity status on use of general practitioner (GP) and hospital inpatient stays at two time points using instrumental variable (IV) methods. Our results demonstrate that child overweight and obesity status do not have a significant effect on healthcare utilisation for children when they are 9 years, but do have a large and significant effect at 13 years. Across all our models, the effects on both GP and hospital inpatient stays are found to be larger when endogeneity in childhood BMI status is addressed. Link to Full Paper

Läpple D, Holloway GJ, Lacombe D, O'Donoghue C (2017) Sustainable Technology Adoption: A Spatial Analysis of the Irish Dairy Sector, European Review of Agricultural Economics, 44, 810-835.

This article explores spatial effects in the adoption of sustainable technologies using spatial econometrics employing a representative sample of Irish dairy farms. The findings reveal that spatial effects spill over to neighbours and better educated farmers with larger more intensively managed farms are more likely to adopt. Link to Full Paper

Queally M, Doherty E, Finucane F, O’Neill C (2017) Low Expectations: Do Teachers Underestimate the Ability of Overweight Children or the Children of Overweight Mothers? Economics and Human Biology, 27, 26-32.

This paper examines whether a teacher's assessment of their pupil's academic ability is influenced by the weight status of the child and/or the child's mother. The study highlights that children whose mother was obese were more likely to be rated as below average in reading and in maths compared to those whose mother was leaner, after adjusting for their measured ability. The potential for mother's weight status to influence teachers’ assessments of their children's perceived ability could have long term ramifications for educational outcomes. Link to Full Paper