Agglomeration and Emigration: Railways, Market Access and Development

This study assesses the economic impact of transportation infrastructure on market access within a resource-limited, small, open economy. Utilising Irish data from 1851 to 1911, during which Ireland saw significant railway expansion, we examine how enhanced connectivity affects both domestic and international market access. The analysis reveals that while domestic market integration via railways led to population increases and higher land values, improved access to global markets had a counteracting influence. Specifically, it facilitated emigration and reduced labour-intensive agricultural exports, diluting the domestic agglomeration benefits. These findings indicate that the economic dividends of market access through transport infrastructure are not a given, providing a cautionary tale for similar modern economies considering infrastructure development as a path to economic growth.

Irish Housing Amenity ValuEs project (I-HAVE)

This project investigates the impact of various location-specific amenities on housing market outcomes, such as sale and rental prices, yields and time to sell. It does this by using a combination of datasets, in particular an incredibly rich dataset of online real estate listings, both sale and rental and covering all of Ireland since 2006. Other datasets include a matched dataset of transactions, energy ratings and listings since 2010, and smaller listings datasets, from online and newspaper sourced over the period 1995-2005. Each paper assesses the impact of one specific amenity, including flood risk, FDI employment, access to blue space and green space amenities, urban rail and schools.

Publications

• "How do households perceive flood-risk? The impact of flooding on the cost of accommodation in Dublin, Ireland" 
• "The impact of employment on housing prices: Detailed evidence from FDI in Ireland"
• "Picture or Playground: Valuing Coastal Amenities"

Migration, Remittances and Information

This project investigates financial flows generated by international migrants. It implements a randomized control trial to quantitatively assess the role of communication between migrants and their contacts abroad on the extent and value of remittance flows. The aim of the project is to measure how this experimental variation in information flows between immigrants and their networks outside of Ireland affects remittance flows. The project has been presented in numerous seminars and prestigious conferences in Europe and North America.

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