Professor John W. O'Hagan's Home Page

John O'Hagan, having completed a degree in Electrical Engineering at University College Dublin subsequently obtained from the same university a B.A. and M.A. in economics and later a Ph.D. from Trinity College Dublin. He is Professor of Economics at Trinity. He has been a visiting Scholar/Professor at the universities of York and Bath, England, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Witten/Herdecke, Germany. He was Head of the Department of Economics at Trinity for five years and Director of the Research Graduate Programme from 1990 to 2001 and has been again since 2005. He has been President of the annual undergraduate journal, Student Economic Review, since its inception in 1987. Apart from the actual publication, there is an annual economics debate against either Cambridge or Oxford, and in 2007, for the first time, an economics debate against Yale University.

He currently lectures on three undergraduate courses. The first is the Senior Freshman (second year) very popular Economy of Ireland course. He has been giving this course, on and off, for 37 years and the book which he co-edits for the course in now in its 9th edition (see below). He also lectures on the European Economy in the Junior Sophister (third) year, concentrating on the micro and policy side of the course. His other course is a half-year offering in public sector economics, also in the Junior Sophister year. In almost all years he has three to four graduate research students under his supervision.

He has acted as expert consultant for various agencies, including the European Commission, the OECD, the Council of Europe, the British Tourist Authority and many Irish agencies. He was Chair from 1993 to 1995 of the Employment Committee of the government-appointed National Economic and Social Forum and co-author of its landmark report, Ending Long-term Unemployment, the period following which Ireland experienced a sustained decrease in unemployment. He was President of the Association for Cultural Economics International from 1998 to 2000.

Between 2001 and 2005 he was an Annual Academic Officer at Trinity College Dublin (Bursar) with his areas of responsibility, de facto, ranging from the College's finances to resource allocation mechanisms, property and space, College governance and academic structures. During this period fundamental change in the structure and funding of academic units in the College was effected.

In 2006 He chaired a Working Group of the National Economic and Social Forum on the topic of Culture and Social Cohesion, the report of which group was published in 2007 and received widespread media coverage.

His recent publications are listed below, with a * indicating where the material has gone through a formal refereeing process. As may be seen, his main areas of research interest are the economics of the arts and his Economy of Ireland book.

Books(from 1998)

1998. The State and the Arts: An Analysis of Key Economic Policy Issues in Europe and the United States, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 232pp. (Parts of this book are being translated into Chinese and the whole book into Spanish, forthcoming 2008.)

2000 The Economy of Ireland: Policy and Performance of a European Region (editor and contributor) (eight edition with seven out of twelve chapters new), Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 341pp.

2005 The Economy of Ireland: National and Sectoral Policy Issues (co-editor and contributor) (ninth

edition with seven out of eleven chapters new), Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 314pp.

Articles/Book Chapters (from 2000)

2000*. "Why Companies Sponsor Arts Events? Some Evidence and a Proposed Classification", Journal of Cultural Economics, Vol. 24, 3, pp. 205-224. (Co-author with D. Harvey)

2000*. "Export Restrictions, Tax Incentives and the National Artistic Patrimony", Cultural Trends, 37, pp. 43-63. (Co-author with C. McAndrew)

2001 'Culture and the Economy', Irish Banking Review, Summer, pp. 33-44.

2001*. 'Restricting Trade in the National Artistic Patrimony: Rationale and Methods', International Journal of Cultural Property , Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 32-54. (co-author with C. McAndrew)

2001 'Innovation and Diversity in Repertoire: Some Key Policy Issues for the Grant-aided and Commercial Theatre Sectors', in S. Selwood (ed.), The Cultural Sector in the UK: Outline and Policy Issues, Policy Studies Institute, London, pp. 217-234. (co-author with A. Neligan)

2003* 'Public Television in Europe: Rationale, Licence Fee and Other Issues', Journal of Cultural Economics 2003,Vol 27, 1, pp. 31-56, 2003 (co-author with M. Jennings).

2004 'Economic Planning', 'North-South Economic Relations', plus eight other entries, in Encyclopedia of Ireland, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin.

2003. 'Tax Expenditures', in R. Towse (ed.), Handbook of Cultural Economics, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 451-457.

2004 "Economics Engages Museology: The Case of Art Museums", Journal of Irish Museums Association, pp. 27-34.

2005* "State Subsidies and Repertoire Conventionality in the Non-Profit English Theatre Sector: An Econometric Analysis", Journal of Cultural Economics, Vol. 29, pp. 35-57 (co-author with A. Neligan).

2005* "Identifying and Ranking the Most Important Artists in a Historical Context: Methods Used and Initial Results", Historical Methods: Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 38, pp. 118-125 (co-author with E. Kelly).

2007 The Arts, Cultural Inclusion and Social Cohesion, National Economic and Social Forum Report No. 35, January (co-author with Anne-Marie McGauran).

2007 "Geographic Clustering of Economic Activity: The Case of Prominent Western Visual Artists", Journal of Cultural Economics, Vol. 31, pp. 109-128 (co-author, Elish Kelly).

Updated May 2007