Experts

Seamus is a Research Professor and the Research Area Co-ordinator for labour market research at the ESRI. Before this, he held posts at QUB, the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic & Social Research (University of Melbourne). He obtained his PhD in Economics from QUB in 2003. Most of his published research has been in labour economics and the economics of education. He has also published research in industrial relations,  regional economics,

Steven McIntosh is a local node director of the Centre for Vocational Education Research. His research focuses on education and labour market outcomes. Areas include the determinants of education choices, rates of return particularly to vocational qualifications and apprenticeships, and the match between the demand and supply of skills, considering the extent to which employees’ skills and abilities are appropriate for their jobs.

Stuart is a Professor in Economics at the University of Strathclyde and a Research Associate at the Office for National Statistics supported Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence. His primary research areas are in applied economics and econometrics, in particular as applied to regional and spatial economics, and policy evaluation. Recent projects include work to generate timelier and higher frequency estimates of regional economic growth in the UK and elsewhere (e.g. in the USA), and to analyse

Working in the field of refugee education with a focus on how we can improve the lives of those who are marginalized or disadvantaged in schools. Her research has considered the barriers/ opportunities schools face in supporting refugee children. Questions around inclusion and integration emerge as a notable concern in this research, around who is rendered visible/ invisible through policy and practice. Her book analysing good practice for refugee education is soon to be published by Routledge.

Alisdair McKay is a Senior Research Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. His research explores the implications of inequality for the business cycle and in particular how it shapes the effects of monetary and fiscal policy.  He received his PhD from Princeton University.

Padraig is a pre-doctoral research assistant at Queen’s University Belfast, where he works at the Centre for Economics, Policy and History (CEPH). He is interested in the lessons policymakers can learn from economic history, with a focus on infrastructure financing and public health.