I work at Queen's University Belfast, where I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics and Co-Director of the university's Centre for Economic History. I also serve as Associate Director for Outreach and Engagement at the Centre for Economics, Policy and History, a Government of Ireland-funded Centre of Excellence jointly run by Queen's University Belfast and Trinity College Dublin.

I combine economics and history to better understand the performance of firms, industries, economies and societies. Topics I have studied include: the causes and consequences of banking crises; culture, religion and the design of cooperative organisations; famines, pandemics and sample selection; patents, invention and the process of innovation; and the formulation and development of monetary policy.

​I lead a teaching and learning project which aims to re-insert the study of economic history into the economics curriculum. My book, An Economist's Guide to Economic History (co-edited with Matthias Blum), is available in paperback or eBook.

Expertise: economic history; financial history; business history; banking crises; health crises; patents and innovation; economic policymaking process; pedagogical reform

Outreach

Historical Lessons for Ukraine
I have written an op-ed together with Eoin McLaughlin and Matthias Blum on the lessons from past experiences of famine (including in Ukriane) for policymakers today. It is published in The Conversation. We wrote a follow-up piece for RTÉ Brainstorm focusing on the growing food security crisis.

Policy Lessons from Ireland's Past
A series of policy briefings published by the Economics Observatory explore policy lessons from Ireland's past. They were commissioned to coincide with Northern Ireland's centenary.

• John Turner introduces and links the series of five articles
• Together with Áine Doran and Alan Fernihough, I wrote a piece on lessons from the Great Irish Famine

Why Economic History?
I was interviewed about my views on the purpose of economic history for economists by ‪Seán Kenny for his Economic History Podcast. You can listen to the interview here.

Demography and Influenza-18
Eoin McLaughlin and I have a pre-print working paper on the demographic impact of the Spanish flu in Ireland. 

• Death, Demography and the Denominator: Age-Adjusted Influenza-18 Mortality in Ireland (Medrxiv preprint, January 2021)

​This paper is now published in Economics and Human Biology. We have written a non-technical summary of our paper for RTÉ Brainstorm:

• How to measure the demographic impact of a pandemic (RTÉ Brainstorm, 19 June 2020)

​The underlying data (constructed with the help of Kyle Richmond) is deposited at the UK Data Service, and described in a short data note.
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​Historical Precedent
Covid-19 has precedent: Influenza-18. I have recently been doing some science communication work about the lessons to learn from this historical parallel.

• Eoin McLaughlin and I wrote an op-ed for The Conversation which draws economic lessons from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic for policymakers today.
• I was interviewed about the 1918 flu pandemic by the stand-up comedian Tiernan Douieb on his Partly Political Podcast.
• I had a conversation about the Spanish flu on Cornelius Christian's YouTube channel.
• I was interviewed as part of a BBC Radio 4 In Business programme on the economic impact of historical pandemics.
• I feature on a 3-part BBC Radio 4 documentary called Pandemic 1918.
• I have written a policy brief about the Spanish flu for the Economics Observatory.
• I was interviewed for The Conversation's Anthill podcast about economic recovery from the Spanish flu and WW1.

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Blogtastic
I maintain an occasional blog with news about activities relating to my pedagogical project on economic history. You can find it here.