Research

Working Papers & work-in-progress

Fiscal Policy and Redistribution in Ireland. Paper presented at joint TCD-ESRI conference to mark the contribution of Patrick Honohan to Irish economic policy. [Slides] [Paper] 

Inclusive growth: the Irish exception? With Brian Nolan.

Equivalisation (once again). With Karina Doorley, Luka Dugan and Theano Kakoulidou. 

Earnings growth and inequality in Ireland: 1987-2017. With Michelle Barrett and Paul Redmond 

Evaluation of NExTWORK active labour market programme in Denmark. With Sonya Krutikova, Imran Tahir & the Rockwool Foundation.

Income taxes and the careers of women, [latest version, presented at 2022 Journees Louis-Andre Gerard-Varet, Marseilles]. 

Born under a bad sign: the impact of finishing school when labour markets are weak (with Mark Regan) [IFS Working Paper W21/28] [non-technical report summary]

Does Statutory Incidence Matter? Earnings Responses to Social Security Contributions (with Enda Hargaden) [presented at 2019 NBER Summer Institute]

Published journal articles

Income inequality in Ireland, 1987–2019. Fiscal Studies, 45(2), 143-153. (2024) (with Michelle Barrett).

Sustainable Development: The Role of Taxation, Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol.52, 2022/23, pp.106-108 (2023).

How Has the Gender Earnings Gap in Ireland Changed in Thirty Years? Social Sciences, 11(8), 1-21 (2022) (with Michelle Barrett, Karina Doorley and Paul Redmond). 

Income Inequality and Living Standards, Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol.51, 2021/22, pp.82-85 (2022).

Mobility and the lifetime distributional impact of tax and transfer reforms. International Tax and Public Finance, 28, 751–793 (2021) (with Peter Levell and Jonathan Shaw).

[News coverage: The Economist, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Martin Wolf, The Telegraph, City AM, Marginal Revolution, ]

Frictions and taxpayer responses: evidence from bunching at personal tax thresholds. International Tax and Public Finance, 28, 612–653 (2021) (with Stuart Adam, James Browne and David Phillips) 

Understanding Income Inequality in Ireland. Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, 2020.  Paper based on lecture given as 130th winner of the Barrington Medal. 

35 Years of Reforms: a panel analysis of the incidence of, and employee and employer responses to, social security contributions in the UK. Journal of Public Economics, 2019 (with Stuart Adam and David Phillips).

What a difference a day makes: inequality and the tax and benefit system from a long-run perspective, Journal of Economic Inequality, 2018 (with Jonathan Shaw).

[News coverage: The Financial Times]

Contribution Ceilings and the Incidence of Payroll Taxes. De Economist, 2017. (with Facundo Alvaredo, Thomas Breda and Emmanuel Saez)

The Incidence of Social Security Contributions in the United Kingdom: Evidence from Discontinuities at Contribution Ceilings. De Economist, 2017. (with Stuart Adam and David Phillips)

UK Tax Policy 2010–15: An Assessment. Fiscal Studies, 2015. (with Stuart Adam)

Taxing an independent Scotland. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2014 (with Stuart Adam and Paul Johnson)