Martina Lawless

Martina Lawless is Director (Chief Executive Officer) of the ESRI since June 2025. She was previously a Research Professor at the Institute, with a research focus on firm-level dynamics, covering a range of topics such as job turnover, exporting, wage setting and foreign direct investment. Her projects at the ESRI have included firm and personal taxation, firm credit access, export diversification and the impact of Brexit on the Irish economy.  

Previously, she worked as a research economist at the Central Bank of Ireland for ten years and has a doctorate from Trinity College Dublin. Her work has been published in journals such as the Journal of International Economics, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Small Business Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics and Economica. She was formerly a member of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and in 2023-2024 was a seconded economic specialist in the Strategic Economic Development Division of the Department of Finance.