Research

Working Papers

My working papers are available in the  Central Bank of Ireland Research Technical Paper series, the ECB working paper series, and my SSRN page.

Some of my policy-related work is also published in the Central Bank of Ireland Economic Letters series, Central Bank of Ireland Quarterly Bulletins and various blogs.

Currently, my research - when I get the time to do it - focuses on how online data can be useful for understanding labour market dynamics. Since 2018, I have worked with Indeed (the largest jobs site in the world) to see how data from their site can be used to shed light on how the labour market works. I have been fortunate to have a great collaborator in all of this, Pawel Adrjan, Head of EMEA Research at the Indeed Hiring Lab and a Research Fellow at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford.  Recently, my colleague at the Central Bank Vahagn Galstyan  has also been doing some exciting new work with us in this area.

• Quarter-Casting Euro Area Wage Growth (Adrjan, Galstyan, Lydon, May 2024) [Slides CBI 2024]

• What Do Wages in Online Job Postings Tell Us about Wage Growth? (Adrjan & Lydon, December 2023). [Data, Slides ECONDAT 2023, IEA 2024]

• Wages and tightness (Adrjan & Lydon) [Slides IEA 2022, DEW 2022]

• Labour Income Uncertainty During a Crisis (LeBlanc & Lydon, 2019) [Slides SEM 2019]

• World and Country Factors in Income Inequality (Lydon, Mumtaz, Zakipour-Saber, 2020)

• 08RT21 Do households with debt cut back consumption more in response to shocks? (Fasianos and Lydon)

• 10RT20 The ins and outs of the gender unemployment gap in the OECD (Lydon and Simmons)

• 07RT20 Household Wealth: what is it, who has it and why it matters (Horan, Lydon and McIndoe-Calder)

• 14RT19 Indebtedness and spending. What happens when the music stops (Le Blanc and Lydon)

• 13RT18 Short-time work in the Great Recession: Firm-level evidence from 20 EU countries (Lydon, Matha, and Millard)

• 12RT18 - Pockets of risk in European Housing Markets then and now (Kelly, Le Blanc and Lydon)

• 11RT18 Macro and Micro Estimates of Irish Household Wealth (Cussen, Lydon and O'Sullivan)

• 05RT17 - The Great Irish Deleveraging (Lydon and McIndoe-Calder)

• 06RT16 - Flexibility of new hires’ earnings in Ireland (Lydon and Lozej)

• 13RT14 - Housing Market Activity and Consumption: Macro and Micro Evidence (Clancy, Cussen and Lydon)

Published papers

• What Do Wages in Online Job Postings Tell Us about Wage Growth? (Adrjan & Lydon). Forthcoming: Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 52 "Big Data Applications in Labor Economics"

• Do households with debt cut back their consumption more? New evidence from the United Kingdom (2022, with Fasianos) Bulletin of Economic Research 74 (3), 737-760

• SSISI Policy Symposium: Inflation and Monetary Policy – What Next (Cost of Living Policy Symposium, December 2022)

• Measuring the Economic Impact of Covid-19 in Real Time , SSISI Public Policy Brief: Understanding the Covid19 Pandemic and its Consequences, Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland Vol. XLIX.

• Short-time work in the Great Recession: firm-level evidence from 20 EU countries (2019, with Mathä and Millard), IZA Journal of Labor Policy 8, 1-29

• Flexibility of new hires’ earnings in Ireland (2018, with Lozej), Labour Economics 53, 112-127

• Unemployment and Inflation in Ireland: 1926‐2012 (with Gerlach and Stuart). Cliometrica, 2015, pages 1-20.

• Housing Equity Withdrawal, Property Bubbles and Consumption (with O’Hanlon). Journal of the Statistical & Social Inquiry Society of Ireland Vol. XLI, 2012.

• What Lies Beneath? Understanding Recent Trends in Irish Mortgage Arrears (with McCarthy). The Economic and Social Review, Vol. 44, No. 1, Spring, 2013.

•  Welfare to work, wages and wage growth (with Walker) Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 26(3), pages 335-370, September 2005.

• Communications Networks and Foreign Direct: Investment in Developing Countries (with Williams). Communications and Strategies 58 (2005).

• Aspects of the Labour Market for New Graduates in Ireland - 1982-1997. Economic and Social Review, vol. 30(3) 1999.ECB/WP 2062

• The Great Irish (De)Leveraging (with McIndoe-Calder, 2016). Published by the Society of Policy Modelling in their online Journal EconModels.com 

Other Central Bank of Ireland publications

Economic Letters

• Vol 2022, No.7, Wage Growth in Europe: Evidence From Job Ads (Adrjan and Lydon)

• Vol 2022, No.1, Household characteristics, Irish inflation and the cost of living (Lydon)

• Vol 2021, No.4, Saving during the pandemic: Waiting out the storm? (Reamonn Lydon and Tara McIndoe-Calder)

• Vol 2021, No.2, The Impact of Covid-19 on the Incomes and Debt Sustainability of Irish Households (Cahill and Lydon)

• Vol 2020, No.11, Wage Subsidies and Job Retention (Keenan and Lydon)

• Vol 2020, No.10, Regional Impact of COVID-19: Western Region and Atlantic Economic Corridor (Lydon and McGrath)

• Vol 2020, No.3 COVID-19 and the global labour market, Impact on job postings (Adrjan and Lydon)

• Vol.2019, No.6 Clicks and jobs, measuring labour market tightness using online data (Adrjan and Lydon)

• Vol.2018, No.13 Does the increased job switching signal higher wage growth? (Staunton and Lydon)

• Vol. 2017, No. 5 - The income distribution and the Irish mortgage market (Lydon and McCann)

• Vol. 2017, No. 2 - Home purchases, downpayments and savings (Kelly and Lydon)

• Vol. 2015, No. 2 - House price volatility: The role of different buyer types (Coates, Lydon and McCarthy)

• Vol. 2014, No. 9 - Housing market developments and household consumption (Clancy, Cussen and Lydon)

• Vol. 2013, No. 2 - Do households with debt problems spend less? (Lydon)

• Vol. 2013, No. 1 - The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Banks' Net Interest Margins (Holton, Kelly, Lydon, Monks and O'Donnell)

• Vol. 2012, No. 6 - Housing equity withdrawal in Ireland: 2000 - 2011 (Lydon and O'Hanlon)

• Vol. 2012, No. 2 - Variable Mortgage Rate Pricing in Ireland (Goggin, Holton, Kelly, Lydon and McQuinn)

• Vol. 2011, No. 1 - The Outlook for Credit in the Irish Economy (Lydon, McQuinn, O'Brien and Sherman)

Central Bank of Ireland Quarterly Bulletin

I have written Articles and Boxes for the Central Bank of Ireland Quarterly Bulletin

• The Labour Market and Wage Growth after a Crisis (Linehan, Lydon, McIndoe Calder, Reddan and Smyth)

• The Balancing Act – Household Indebtedness Over the Lifecycle (Fasianos, Lydon and McIndoe-Calder)

• Labour Cost Adjustment during the Crisis: Firm-level Evidence (Linehan, Lydon and Scally)

• The Financial Position of Irish Households (Lawless, Lydon and McIndoe-Calder)

• Trends in Business Investment (Lydon and Scally)

• Housing Equity Withdrawal Trends in Ireland (Lydon and O’Leary)

Boxes are available on the Central Bank of Ireland Quarterly Bulletin Archive

Conference attendance and participation

I am on the Council (Director) of the Irish Economic Association. In that role,  I chair the IEA-CSO group on 'Data for Research'.

I am a regular attendee at international conferences, including:

Irish Economic Association, Royal Economic Society, Economics Statistics Centre of Excellence (ONS, UK), European Association of Labour Economists, European Economic Association, American Economic Association Annual Meetings, Society for Economic Measurement, American Statistical Association.  

I have presented my work at many ESCB and Eurosystem research and policy network workshops and conferences, including: the Monetary Policy Committee, the 2021 ECB Strategy Review,  The Expert Group on Wage Trackers, The Labour Market Contact Group of Labour Market Experts, The Household Finance and Consumption Network, the Wage Dynamics Network, and the Expert Group on Wage Trackers.