Andrew Ireland

I am the 2026 McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, hosted by the Department of Economics within the Faculty of Business and Economics.

My research is in applied microeconomics, focused on labor markets, the environment and human health. My work uses large administrative and survey datasets to investigate how environmental shocks, such as extreme weather events, impact people's health and labor outcomes.

Before joining the University of Melbourne, I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  I completed my PhD at Monash University, Centre for Health Economics, in 2024, where I investigated the impacts of heat on workers' health and productivity.

Research

Journal Articles

"Heat and Worker Health" (with David Johnston & Rachel Knott), Journal of Health Economics

[Article (Open Access)]   [Media Release]

Working Papers

"Impacts of Temperature on Labor Force Dynamics" (with David Johnston & Rachel Knott) Revise and Resubmit at Journal of Labor Economics

[Working paper] 

"Effects of Heat Thresholds on Construction Workers’ Health" (available upon request)

This paper evaluates the impact of heat thresholds introduced in the Australian construction industry for the cessation of work when outside temperatures reach 35 °C (95 °F). Using administrative data of occupational health claims (2005–2020), I estimate the causal impact of the thresholds on workplace accidents.

Works in progress

"Resilient or Scarred? Migration, Mortality, and Morbidity after Natural Disasters"  (with Tatyana Deryugina, David Molitor and Jiameng Zheng)

"Temperature and Leniency: Man vs Machine" (with Romain Gauriot and Maria Wisniewska)

"Temperature Effects on Firm Inputs, Outputs & Productivity" (with David Johnston & Rachel Knott)