Alan Barrett

Professor Alan Barrett is a Research Professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute. He served as CEO of the Institute between 2015 and 2025.

Alan received his Ph.D. in Economics from Michigan State University in 1994 and joined the ESRI that year. He was seconded to the Department of Finance from 2001 to 2003 and Trinity College Dublin from 2011 to 2013. 

Most of his research is in the areas of labour economics, population economics and macroeconomics. His academic work has been published in journals such as Labour Economics, the Journal of Population Economics, the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, the Industrial and Labor Relations Review, the British Journal of Industrial Relations, the International Migration Review, Population Research and Policy Review, the Economic and Social Review, the National Institute Economic Review and Economics Letters.

He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Research Fellow with the Institute for Labour Economics (IZA) in Bonn, Germany, an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin. He was a member of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council from 2011 to 2015 and a member (ex officio) of the Climate Change Advisory Council from 2015 to 2021. He chaired each National Economic Dialogue from 2015 to 2022. He is a member of the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council and is chair of the Commission on Care for Older People.

He is a frequent contributor to radio and television discussions on economic matters and has been quoted in newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist.