C.Comm., M.Sc. PhD

Contact Details

LECTURER BELOW THE BAR
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
NUI GALWAY
E: THOMAS.MCDERMOTT@nuigalway.ie
 
researcher
 

Biography

I am a Lecturer in the Discipline of Economics at the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, at NUI Galway, a Visiting Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, and a former IRC Government of Ireland Research Fellow.

My research interests are at the intersection of environmental and development economics. I have published widely, including in leading economics journals, as well as more generalist science and social science journals. My research has been cited over 1200 times, including in the recent high profile IPCC SR1.5 report (in Chapters 4 and 5). I am also co-editor with Sam Fankhauser of The Economics of Climate Resilient Development (Edward Elgar, 2016). 

I have previously consulted for the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, the Irish EPA and Ireland's Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, including contributing a background paper for Ireland’s first statutory National Climate Change Adaptation Framework (published in January 2018).

I was previously Principal Investigator for a project funded by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency on the economic impacts of flooding in Ireland, and options for managing flood risk, including an emphasis on the role of insurance. The outputs from this project include publications at JEEP, Phil Trans R Soc A, as well as a policy paper on flooding and insurance, and a policy brief on local adaptation decision-making. 

I hold a PhD from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), where I was supervised by Frank Barry and Richard Tol. During the Summer of 2012 I was a PhD research intern at the United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) in Helsinki. I hold a B.Comm (International – with Italian) and an M.Sc. in Economics from the National University of Ireland, Galway and previously taught economics at Dublin City University and at UCC.

Research Interests

My research interests are at the intersection of the economics of climate change and development economics, with a focus on empirical evaluation of the economic impacts of extreme weather events, such as floods, and on issues of public policy related to the economics of adaptation to climate change.

Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
(2019) 'Flooded Cities'
Adriana Kocornik-Mina, Thomas K.J. McDermott, Guy Michaels, Ferdinand Rauch (2019) 'Flooded Cities'. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, [Details]
(2019) 'The impact of flooding disruption on the spatial distribution of commuter's income'
Kilgarriff, P;McDermott, TKJ;Vega, A;Morrissey, K;O'Donoghue, C (2019) 'The impact of flooding disruption on the spatial distribution of commuter's income'. Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, 8 :48-64 [DOI] [Details]
(2018) 'How normative interpretations of climate risk assessment affect local decision-making: an exploratory study at the city scale in Cork, Ireland'
McDermott, TKJ;Surminski, S (2018) 'How normative interpretations of climate risk assessment affect local decision-making: an exploratory study at the city scale in Cork, Ireland'. Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society A-Mathematical Physical And Engineering Sciences, 376 [DOI] [Details]
(2016) 'Why is gold a safe haven?'
Baur, Dirk G, McDermott, Thomas K.J. (2016) 'Why is gold a safe haven?'. The Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 10 :63-71 [Details]
(2016) 'Model confirmation in climate economics'
Millner A,McDermott TKJ, (2016) 'Model confirmation in climate economics'. Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America, 113 (31) [Details]
(2016) 'Geography, institutions and development: A review of the long-run impacts of climate change'
Castells-Quintana, David, Lopez-Uribe, Maria, McDermott, Thomas K.J. (2016) 'Geography, institutions and development: A review of the long-run impacts of climate change'. Climate and Development, [Details]
(2014) 'Understanding the adaptation deficit: Why are poor countries more vulnerable to climate events than rich countries?'
Fankhauser, Samuel, McDermott, Thomas K.J. (2014) 'Understanding the adaptation deficit: Why are poor countries more vulnerable to climate events than rich countries?'. Global Environmental Change, 27 :9-18 [Details]
(2014) 'Disasters and Development: Natural Disasters, Credit Constraints and Economic Growth'
McDermott, Thomas K.J., Barry, Frank, Tol, Richard S.J. (2014) 'Disasters and Development: Natural Disasters, Credit Constraints and Economic Growth'. Oxford Economic Papers, 66 (3):750-773 [Details]
(2010) 'Is Gold a safe haven: International evidence'
Baur, Dirk G., McDermott, Thomas K.J. (2010) 'Is Gold a safe haven: International evidence'. Journal of Banking and Finance, 34 (8):1886-1898 [Details]

Book Chapters

  Year Publication
(2016) 'Coping with climate risk: The options'
Thomas K.J. McDermott, Maria del Pilar Lopez-Uribe, David Castells-Quintana (2016) 'Coping with climate risk: The options' In: The Economics of Climate Resilient Development. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. [Details]
(2016) 'Investing in Disaster Risk Management in an Uncertain Climate'
McDermott, TKJ (2016) 'Investing in Disaster Risk Management in an Uncertain Climate' In: Realising the Triple Resilience Dividend: A New Business Case for Disaster Risk Management. London: Springer. [Details]
(2016) 'The role of climate in development'
Thomas K.J. McDermott, Maria del Pilar Lopez-Uribe, David Castells-Quintana (2016) 'The role of climate in development' In: The Economics of Climate Resilient Development. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. [Details]

Edited Book

  Year Publication
(2016) The Economics of Climate Resilient Development.
(2016) The Economics of Climate Resilient Development. Cheltenham, UK: Edited Book [Details]

Committees

  Committee Function From / To
Economics Exams Committee Member /
Athena Swan Self Assessment Team Member of Group E (staff comms and culture survey) /

Modules Taught

  Term/Year Module Title Module Code Subject / Desc
Semester 1, 2019/20 Climate Change Economics EC5118
Semester 2, 2019/20 Principles of Macroeconomics EC141
Semester 2, 2019/20 Development Economics EC357
Semester 1, 2019/20 Ireland in the Global Economy EC423