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Academic Staff

• Agustín BénétrixAssociate Professor in Economics, Head of Department PhD (Trinity College Dublin).
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  Agustín is Associate Professor and Head of the Economics Department (2022-25) and a member of the School Executive Committee.

  Previously, he was Director of the International Macroeconomics research unit (IM-TCD). His research interests include financial globalisation, exchange rates and fiscal policy. His work has been published in the Journal of International Economics, Economic Policy, Journal of International Money and Finance and International Journal of Central Banking, among others.
• Maylis AvaroAssistant Professor in Economics PhD (Graduate Institute, Geneva)
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  Maylis is an Assistant Professor and an associate of the Centre for Economic, Policy and History (CEPH). She researches economic and financial history, and more specifically banking and monetary history, as well as cryptocurrencies. She was previously the Howard S. Marks Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania, and a fellow of the Business, Economics and Financial History initiative of the Wharton School.

  She was also a Scientific Collaborator at the department of Economic and Financial History at Université Libre de Bruxelles. She formerly held visiting positions at the department of Economics of Rutgers University, at the Faculty of History at Oxford University and worked at an research intern at the Bank of France.
• Jian CaoAssistant Professor in Economics PhD (Florida State)
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  Jian is an Assistant Professor and an applied economist, with an interest in computational methodologies, empirical industrial organization, and political economy. His research focuses on integrating advanced statistical techniques to address complex economic policy challenges and analyse market dynamics.

  Previously, Jian was a Research Fellow at Trinity and a Postdoctoral Scholar in Data Science and Election Integrity at Caltech, where he developed Bayesian models for election auditing and designed large-scale social media analysis tools.
• Eleanor DennyProfessor in Economics, College Bursar PhD (UCD)
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  Eleanor is a Professor in Economics and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (FTCD). Since 2021, she has been the Bursar and Director of Strategic Innovation at Trinity College Dublin.

  Eleanor was previously a visiting scholar at the Harvard Environmental Economics Programme and the Harvard Graduate School of Education for 2014-2015. She is the inaugural Director of Trinity Research in Social Science (TRiSS).
• Nicola FontanaAssistant Professor in Economics, Deputy PhD Director PhD (LSE)
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  Nicola is an Assistant Professor and associate of the Centre for Economics, Policy and History, Trinity Impact Evaluation Unit and Trinity Research in Social Sciences. He is also an associate at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.

  His research interests centre on political economy, economic history, and urban economics. Current areas of research include urban/political economy (how cities and societies are changing, especially looking at the impact of peer-to-peer platforms) and history/political economy.
• Selim GulesciAssociate Professor in Economics, School Postgraduate Director PhD (LSE)
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  Selim is an Associate Professor and currently a member of the School Executive Committee in his role as Director of Teaching and Learning (Postgraduate).

  His research and teaching interests are in development and labour economics, with particular focus on entrepreneurship, education and gender. He worked at Bocconi University for nine years prior to joining TCD.
• Michael KingAssistant Professor in Economics, Director of TIME PhD (Trinity College Dublin).
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  Michael is Assistant Professor and his areas of research include financial inclusion and banking, social and consumer protection, and household dynamics, with a focus on behavioural and experimental economics. Michael is currently principal investigator on fifteen research projects across 10 countries.

  Between 2007 and 2012, Michael held the position of Senior Research Officer at the Institute for International Integration Studies (IIIS) at Trinity College Dublin. He previously worked as an Economist with Forfás and the National Competitiveness Council in Dublin.
• Martina KirchbergerAssistant Professor in Development Economics, Deputy Director of the MSc in Economics (MT) D.Phil (University of Oxford)
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  Martina is an Assistant Professor and a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. She is a development economist with a particular interest in using micro data to answer macro questions in the areas of urbanisation, infrastructure, the construction sector, labour markets, and spatial mobility. She uses big data, such as mobile phone and smartphone app data, to understand high-frequency mobility. In recent work she examines the role of distortions in the investment sector for capital accumulation. She is also involved in two randomised controlled trials with large-scale construction firms.

  Over the past fifteen years Martina has worked with a number of governments in Africa and been a consultant to the World Bank, the United Nations Children's Fund and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Tanzania and Mali. Prior to joining Trinity College Dublin, she was an Earth Institute Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University.
• Joseph KopeckyAssistant Professor in Economics, PhD Director PhD (UC Davis)
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  Joseph is an Assistant Professor, with research interests in quantitative macroeconomics, bringing together data and models, with applications across a broad range of subjects, including: entrepreneurship, macroeconomic policy, international economics, inequality, and asset prices. Much of his research focuses on the role that population aging plays in shaping important trends in the macroeconomy. These range from longer run questions related to productivity and growth, to questions on how age-structure affects the transmission of fiscal and monetary policy.

  He also has recent work in the areas of international macroeconomics and on the replicability of economic research. Joseph is the PhD in Economics Programme Director.
• Ronan LyonsProfessor in Economics, Director of TRiSS D.Phil (University of Oxford)
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  Ronan is an Associate Professor and Director of Trinity Research in Social Sciences (TRiSS) and Data Lead at the Centre for Economics, Policy & History (CEPH). He is an applied economist with an interest in why and how places thrive – his research focuses on housing markets, urban economics and economic history.

  He is active on housing policy issues and served on the Irish Government’s Housing Commission (2021-2024). He is also a consultant to the IMF on residential property prices and a frequent contributor to national and international media on Irish housing and the broader economy. He was awarded his doctorate by Balliol College, Oxford, in 2014.
• Martyna MarczakAssistant Professor in Economics, Seminar Convenor PhD (University of Hohenheim)
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  Martyna is an Assistant Professor and her current research agenda lies at the intersection of macroeconomics and labour economics, focusing on the interactions between labour markets and technological change, as well as the role of labour market institutions. Earlier in her career, Martyna published extensively on business cycle analysis, addressing topics such as trend-cycle decomposition, business cycle indicators, and short-term forecasting.

  In recent work in international economics, she has examined industry-level international competitiveness and the impact of global value chains. Before joining Trinity College in 2023, Martyna was a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany.
• Tara MitchellAssistant Professor in Economics, Deputy Director of the MSc in Economics (HT) PhD (LSE)
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  Tara is an Assistant Professor and an applied microeconomist with particular interests in development economics, poverty and inequality. Her work has been published in journals such as The World Bank Economic Review and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

  In addition to her research, she is actively involved in teaching and was awarded the Provost’s Teaching Award in 2019, in recognition of outstanding contribution in the pursuit of teaching excellence. Tara is also a consultant for the World Bank, a founding member of the Trinity Impact Evaluation Research Centre (TIME) and a member of the executive committee of the Irish Society for Women in Economics (ISWE).
• Gaia NarcisoProfessor in Economics, Director of the Centre for Economics, Policy and History PhD (Bocconi)
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  Gaia is a Professor in Economics and former Head of the Department of Economics (2019-2022). She is an Applied Economist with an interest in development economics, political economy, and economic history. Gaia is the co-founder of the Trinity Impact Evaluation Unit (TIME) Research Centre.

  Professor Narciso is currently the Director of the Centre for Economics, Policy and History (CEPH) at the Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin.
• Carol NewmanProfessor of Economics, Research Director (Economics) PhD (Trinity College Dublin)
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  Carol is Professor of Economics (2024), former Head of Department (2015-18) and Head of School (2019-2022) and a Fellow of the College. Her research is in applied microeconomics with a particular focus on developing countries. She is involved in numerous research projects across sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. She is a co-founder of the Trinity Impact Evaluation Unit (TIME) Research Centre and received the Teagasc Walsh Scholar Alum Award in 2021 for her contributions to research in agricultural economics.

  Carol is an Associate Editor of the European Economic Review, a non-resident Senior Researcher with United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economics Research, and a Consultant to the World Bank. She is Chair of the Board of Policy for Economic Partnership (PEP) and a Board member of Development Southern Africa. She is also an International Resource Person for the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).
• Sharyn O'HalloranDirector of Research (School) PhD (UC San Diego)
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  Sharyn is the SALI Professor of Political Economy (2020), a joint appointment between the Departments of Economics and Political Science, and a Fellow of the College. She is a member of the School Executive Committee in her role as Director of Research. Her research focuses on political economy, trade, and financial regulation.

  Her current work centres on using artificial intelligence to predict the resilience of democracies to economic crises. She is a member of the Board of Trinity Research in Social Sciences (TRiSS) and an associate researcher with the Central Bank of Ireland and the SFI ADAPT Centre, which specialises in AI-driven digital content technology.
• Francis O'TooleAssociate Professor in Economics, Director of Global Relations PhD (Georgetown)
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  Francis is an Associate Professor and former Head of Department (2015-18), and currently serves as a member of the School Executive Committee in his role as Director of Global Relations. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of the Economics of Competition Policy (e.g. mergers, exclusivity agreements) and the Economics of Public Policy (e.g. taxation, redistribution and compulsory voting).

  He has been a visiting professor in Georgetown University, University of Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and Senshu University, Toyko. He has also advised Irish competition and regulatory authorities and state bodies in the economics of competition policy and regulation.
• Alejandra RamosAssistant Professor in Economics (leave) PhD (University of Barcelona)
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  Alejandra is an Assistant Professor and her research explores and quantifies how social expectations of women and men constrain individual choices and looks at creative ways to close the gaps.

  In addition to gender, attitudes, and violence, she also investigates how to retain and motivate talented teachers and other talented workers.
• Barra RoantreeAssistant Professor in Economics, Director of the MSc in Economic Policy PhD (UCL)
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  Barra is an Assistant Professor and Programme Director of the MSc in Economic Policy at Trinity College Dublin. His research focuses on the design of the tax and welfare system, and the evolution and distribution of living standards in Ireland.

  He previously worked as an economist at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in London. He was a member of the Irish Government's 2021-22 Commission on Taxation and Welfare.
• Davide RomelliAssociate Professor in Economics, Diploma Director PhD (Cergy-Pontoise)
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  Davide is an Associate Professor and a Research Affiliate of IM-TCD (International Macro-TCD) and SUERF – The European Money and Finance Forum; a Research fellow of the BAFFI-CAREFIN Centre, Bocconi University; a Research Associate of the Centre for Economics, Policy, and History and a Chercheur affilié at OFCE-SciencesPo.

  His research focuses on international finance and macroeconomics, central banking and financial supervision. He is also Associate Editor of the International Journal of Finance & Economics and International Economics and Economic Policy.
• Paul ScanlonAssistant Professor in Economics, Undergraduate Director PhD (UC Berkeley)
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  Paul is an Assistant Professor and his research focus is macroeconomics, with recent work examining the underlying causes of inflation and the interaction between labour supply and product innovation.

  In addition to his research, he is the Undergraduate Coordinator in Economics, playing an integral role in directing and shaping the undergraduate programme. He is currently the department’s Leaving Certificate representative, and between 2021-24 he sat on the Central Scholarship Committee.
• Marvin SuesseAssociate Professor in Economics, Postgraduate Director PhD (Humboldt)
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  Marvin is an Assistant Professor and Marvin’s research explores the intersection of state-building, economic nationalism, and the historical dynamics of industrialisation.

  His work on the State Bank of the Russian Empire uncovers the geopolitical and state-building motives behind economic policies in pre-WWI Russia.
• Michael WycherleyAssistant Professor in Economics, Outgoing Erasmus Student Co-ordinator and BESS Co-Director PhD (European Uni Institute Florence)
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  Michael is an Assisant Professor and previously worked as an economist for the UK government. His research interests span a range of areas within macroeconomics, including fiscal policy, growth, institutional and technical change. Current administrative roles within the school are as co-Director of the BESS programme and the departmental study abroad coordinator for outgoing students.

  Previous roles have included the departmental PhD director and the School Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning.
• Niamh WylieAssistant Professor in Economics, Incoming Erasmus Student Co-ordinator PhD (Trinity College Dublin)
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  Niamh is an Assistant Professor and formerly a lecturer in Derivatives and Financial Econometrics at Trinity Business School. Her research interests include macroeconomics, societal sentiment towards unconventional monetary policy, CBDCs and cryptocurrencies, and fostering public trust in central banks.

• Vitaliia YaremkoAssistant Professor in Economics, IM-TCD Director PhD (UC Berkeley)
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  Vitaliia is an Assistant Professor and Research Affiliate of IM-TCD (International Macro-TCD), and a Research Associate of the Centre for Economics, Policy and History (CEPH). Vitaliia works on topics in macroeconomics, comparative economics, and economic history.

  Her recent work in macroeconomics involves designing and testing interventions using randomised controlled trials to study how the macroeconomic expectations of households and firms influence their decision-making. In comparative economics and economic history, her research examines the role of socialist institutions and policies in shaping individual and aggregate outcomes.
• Martina ZanellaAssistant Professor in Economics, EDI Rep PhD (LSE)
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  Martina is an Assistant Professor and is affiliated with the Trinity Impact Evaluation Unit (TIME) and the Trinity Research in Social Sciences (TRISS). Martina's research explores the causes and consequences of inequality in education, labour markets, and political bodies, drawing insights from Psychology and Sociology to provide evidence-based suggestions for policy.

  During the years of her PhD, Martina worked as Teaching Fellow and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the LSE, and as Research Assistant for Professors Eliana La Ferrara, Oriana Bandiera, Nava Ashraf, and Sandra Sequeira. She previously worked as Analyst in the Consulting and Advanced Analytics Team at IQVIA in Milan, and as Intern in the Research Unit of BRAC in Kampala, Uganda.