Rate My Professor Nigel O’Leary

Professor Nigel O’Leary is a Professor of Economics at Swansea University’s School of Social Sciences, previously known as the University of Wales, Swansea. He holds key leadership roles as Director of the Welsh Economy Labour Markets Evaluation Research Centre (WELMERC) and Co-Director of the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD). His academic career at Swansea University has progressed from lecturer to professor, with a focus on applied labour economics. O’Leary specializes in regional and labour economics, encompassing research on labour markets, economic development, inequalities, educational attainment, and well-being considerations. His work examines public-private sector pay differentials, employment discrimination, returns to university education across British regions, overskilling in labour markets, and the impact of mobility on early career earnings. He has conducted projects such as Identity and Civic Divides in the UK, analyzing how identities like disability, sexuality, and religion affect political participation and well-being; the Gender Pay Gap in Wales using Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data; and Cultural Capital and Local Impacts in the context of Culture Based Development.

O’Leary’s consultancy clients include BP, the Welsh Government, Welsh Development Agency, Equal Opportunities Commission, and CEDEFOP. His influential publications include 'Sexual orientation, political trust, and same-sex relationship recognition policies: evidence from Europe' (Public Choice, 2022), 'Wellbeing trajectories around life events in Australia' (Economic Modelling, 2020), 'Understanding What Has Been Happening to the Public-Sector Pay Premium in Great Britain: A Distributional Approach Based on the Labour Force Survey' (British Journal of Industrial Relations, 2020), 'Sexual identity and wellbeing: A distributional analysis' (Economics Letters, 2019), 'Regional pay? The public/private sector pay differential' (Regional Studies, 2019), 'The impact of mobility on early career earnings: A quantile regression approach for UK graduates' (Economic Modelling, 2017), 'Too many graduates? An application of the Gottschalk–Hansen model to young British graduates between 2001–2010' (Oxford Economic Papers, 2016), and 'The Problem of Overskilling in Australia and Britain' (The Manchester School, 2010). He co-authored the textbook Modern Labour Economics. His research informs policy on public sector pay, employment opportunities, and regional economic prosperity in Wales and the UK.