Economics and Strategy Group
Profile
I joined Aston Business School in December 2011, having spent the previous four years as Head of Research at the Economic Research Institute of Northern Ireland to which I had moved from the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre.
I had moved to Northern Ireland in 1997 from a Chair of Quantitative Economics at the Barbados campus of the University of West Indies. Further back, I worked as a researcher in: the Department of Applied Economics in Cambridge, the Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques (a Paris-based research institute), and the Research Department of the Australian central bank.
Qualifications & Education
- BEc with First Class Honours, University of Sydney, 1975
- MEc, University of Sydney, 1976
- PhD in Economics, Queen Mary College, University of London, 1979
Employment
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2011 – to date: Senior Research Fellow, Economics and Strategy Group, Aston Business School, Aston University
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2004 – 2011: Head of Research, Economic Research Institute of Northern Ireland
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1999 – 2004: Director, Northern Ireland Research Centre
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1997 – 1999: Senior Research Officer, Northern Ireland Research Centre
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1989 – 1997: Professor of Quantitative Economics, Department of Economics, Cave Hill Campus, University of the West Indies
Teaching activity
Dissertation supervision
Research interests
My interest is in the statistical analysis of economic problems which concern policy-makers
Recent research funding
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BIS, Job Creation and Destruction in the UK
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BIS, Statistical Profile of Mid-Sized Businesses
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NESTA, Building Evidence on High-Growth Firms
PhD supervision
Available to supervise new PhD students with interests in quantitative studies of enterprise & entrepreneurship
Membership of Professional Bodies
Academician, Academy of Social Sciences
Member, Royal Statistical Society
Selected publications
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"Job Creation and Destruction in the UK: 1998 – 2010", for Department for Business Innovation & Skills (with Karen Bonner and Mark Hart), October 2011
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”New business formation in a rapidly growing economy: The Irish experience” (with M. Hart, and H. Lenihan), Small Business Economics, Volume 36, Number 4, May 2011, pp. 503-516
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”What is the problem, exactly? The distribution of Incapacity Benefit claimants’ conditions across British regions”. Policy Studies, 2010, vol 31, pp 187–202
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”My Brilliant Career: Characterising the Early Labour Market Trajectories of British Women from Generation X” (with Duncan McVicar). Sociological Methods and Research, 2010, vol 38, pp 482–512
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"Measuring Business Growth: High-growth firms and their contribution to employment in the UK", for National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (with Karen Bonner, Mark Hart and Colin Mason). October 2009