Dr Irene Mosca
Biography
Irene Mosca holds a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, UK). From 2010-2018, she worked with The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), in Trinity College Dublin, coordinating the economics domain and chairing the socioeconomic research group. She joined Maynooth University in 2019.
Irene’s research interests are in the fields of applied health, population and labour economics. Irene has established a strong record of research and published articles in international peer-reviewed journals, including Demography, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Oxford Economics Papers, the Journal of Population Economics, Labour Economics, Economics Letters, the Journal of Economic Psychology, Economics and Human Biology, Bulletin of Economic Research and the International Journal of Public Health.
In 2022, Irene was awarded the Novartis Prize for Best Health Economics Paper at the 2022 Irish Economics Association Conference. The paper is co-authored with Professor Anne Nolan (ESRI) and investigates the long-term effects of in-utero exposure to rubella during the 1956 rubella outbreak in Ireland. In 2017, Irene was awarded the “Excellence in Mental Health Policy and Economics Research Award” by the Editorial Board of The Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics. The paper is co-authored with Professor Alan Barrett (ESRI) and investigates the effects of retirement on mental health.
Irene is an Executive Committee Member of the Irish Society for Women in Economics (ISWE) and a research fellow at the IZA Institute for Study of Labor and the Global Labor Organisation (GLO).
Research Interests
Irene’s research interests are in the fields of population economics, labour economics and health economics. Irene’s research has covered a wide range of topics, including: (return) migration and mental health; obesity and employment; retirement and cognition; personality and wealth accumulation; socioeconomic gradients in health; and the long-term effects of the Irish Marriage Bar.
Peer Reviewed Journal
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Mosca, I. & A. Nolan (2025) 'The long-term effects of in utero exposure to rubella'. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, . https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12663 | |
| 2025 | Mosca, I. & R.E. Wright (2025) 'The Relationship between Personality and Employment: Evidence from the Irish Marriage Bar'. Bulletin of Economic Research, . | |
| 2024 | Kämpfen, F.; Mosca, I. (2024) 'Heterogeneous effects of blood pressure screening'. Economics Letters, 242 . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2022 | Eibich P.; Lorenti A.; Mosca I. (2022) 'Does retirement affect voluntary work provision? Evidence from Europe and the U.S'. Labour Economics, 76 . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2021 | Mosca, I.; O'sullivan, V.; Wright, R.E. (2021) 'The educational attainment of the children of stay-at-home mothers: evidence from the Irish Marriage Bar'. OXFORD ECONOMIC PAPERS, 73 . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2020 | Mosca I. and R.E. Wright (2020) 'The Long-term Consequences of the Irish Marriage Bar'. THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL REVIEW, 51 (1):1-34. | |
| 2018 | Mosca, I. and R.E. Wright (2018) 'The Effect of Retirement on Cognition: Evidence from the Irish Marriage Bar'. Demography, 55 (4):1317-1341. [Full-Text] | |
| 2016 | Mosca, I. & McCrory C. (2016) 'Personality and Wealth Accumulation Among Older Couples: Do Dispositional Characteristics Pay Dividends?'. Journal of Economic Psychology, 56 :1-19. [Full-Text] | |
| 2016 | Mosca, I. and R.E. Wright (2016) 'Height and Cognition at Older Ages: Irish Evidence'. Economics Letters, 149 :98-101. [Full-Text] | |
| 2016 | Mosca, I. and A. Barrett (2016) 'The Impact of Voluntary and Involuntary Retirement on Mental Health: Evidence from Older Irish Adults'. Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, 19 (1):33-44. [Full-Text] | |
| 2016 | Mosca, I. and A. Barrett (2016) 'The Impact of Adult Child Emigration on the Mental Health of Older Parents'. Journal of Population Economics, 29 (3):687-719. [Full-Text] | |
| 2015 | Barrett, A., I. Mosca and B. Whelan (2015) 'How Well-Informed are Pension Scheme Members on Their Future Pension Benefits? Evidence from Ireland'. Journal of Aging and Social Policy, . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2015 | Hudson, E., D. Madden and I. Mosca (2015) 'A Formal Investigation of Inequalities in Health Behaviours after Age 50 on the Island of Ireland'. Economic And Social Review, 46 (2):253-265. [Full-Text] | |
| 2014 | Mosca, I. and R.A. Kenny (2014) 'Investigating Cross-nationals Differences in Prevalence of Diagnosed, Measured and Undiagnosed Hypertension: the Case of Ireland and the US'. International Journal of Public Health, 59 (5):759-767. [Full-Text] | |
| 2013 | Mosca I and A. Barrett (2013) 'The Psychic Costs of Migration: Evidence from Irish Return Migrants'. Journal of Population Economics, 26 (2):483-506. [Full-Text] | |
| 2013 | Mosca I (2013) 'Body Mass Index, Waist Circumference and Employment: Evidence from Older Irish Adults'. ECONOMICS AND HUMAN BIOLOGY, 11 (4):522-533. [Full-Text] | |
| 2013 | Mosca, I., Ní Bhuachalla, B. & Kenny, R.A. (2013) 'Explaining Significant Differences in Subjective and Objective Measures of Cardiovascular Health: Evidence for the Socioeconomic Gradient in a Population-based Study'. BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, 13 (64). [Full-Text] | |
| 2013 | Mosca, I. and A. Barrett (2013) 'Increasing the State Pension Age, the Recession and Expected Retirement Ages'. Economic And Social Review, 44 (4):447-472. [Full-Text] | |
| 2013 | Mosca, I. and A. Barrett (2013) 'Early-life Causes and Later-life Consequences of Migration: Evidence from older Irish Adults'. Journal of Population Ageing, 6 (1):29-45. [Full-Text] | |
| 2013 | Mosca, I. and A. Barrett (2013) 'Social Isolation, Loneliness and Return Migration: Evidence from Older Irish Adults'. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 39 (10):1659-1677. [Full-Text] | |
| 2009 | Mosca I (2009) 'Impact of Population Ageing on Earnings and Employment in Italy'. LABOUR: REVIEW OF LABOUR ECONOMICS AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, 23 (2):371-395. | |
| 2008 | Lisenkova, K., Mosca, I. & Wright, R.E (2008) 'Ireland and Scotland: Converging or Diverging Demography?'. SCOTTISH AFFAIRS, 68 :18-36. |
Published Report
Conference Contribution
Invited Seminars
Newspaper Articles
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Mosca, I. (2023) Is the health of the Irish population declining? Census data may indicate that it is. [Newspaper Articles] [Link] | |
| 2021 | Mosca, I. (2021) How Ireland dealt with 1951's deadly flu pandemic. [Newspaper Articles] [Link] | |
| 2022 | Mosca, I. and R.E. Wright (2022) Enduring Effects of State's Marriage Bar. [Newspaper Articles] |
Honors and Awards
Editorial / Academic Reviews
Teaching Interests
Health economics and policy (EC229)
Public economics (EC214)
Econometrics (EC306)
Fundamentals of microeconomics and macroeconomics (EC101M and EC103)