Barrett joined the ESRI in 1994, upon completing his Ph.D. Since then, his research has been widely published in journals such as Labour Economics, Journal of Population Economics,
Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Economics Letters,
Industrial and Labor Relations Review, British Journal of Industrial Relations, European Journal of Population, International Migration Review, Population Research and Policy Review, Economic and Social Review and National Institute Economic Review. In 1997 he co-authored a book on
environmental economics, The Fiscal System and the Polluter Pays Principle: A Case-study of Ireland. Between 2005 and 2010, he was a co-author of the ESRI’s Quarterly Economic Commentary, providing analysis of current economic trends and economic forecasts. Between 2001 and 2003, Alan was seconded to the Department of Finance where he worked on the long-term fiscal implications of population ageing. Between 2011 and 2013, he was seconded to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin where he worked as Project Director. He was a member of the
Irish Fiscal Advisory Council from 2011 to 2015. He was co-editor of the IZA Journal of European Labor Studies from 2012 to 2015 and was the founding Editor of the Policy Section of the Economic and Social Review from 2009 to 2011. He is a Research Fellow with IZA (Institute for the Study of Labor) in Bonn, Germany and an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland. He is also a member of the National Expert Advisory Council on Climate Change. In 2019 he was admitted as a member of the
Royal Irish Academy. == Publications ==