People

Expand all

Dr. Aidan Kane

BA (Mod.) PhD

Biography

Dr Aidan Kane is a lecturer in economics at NUI Galway.

His BA and PhD are from the University of Dublin, Trinity College. His research interests are principally in Irish economic history, and in particular, the construction of historical datasets, mainly related to Irish public finance, from the 18th century to the present, and on Ireland's 18th century international trade, using a range of web, programming, and relational database technologies. He is currently also working on maritime economic history, working on databases of 19th steamships built in Britain and Ireland, on the analysis of technological and industry change in shipping through a database of Lloyd's Register from the 1780s to the 1860s, and a separate project on the evolution of cotton spinning machinery in 19th century Britain.

He also has an interest in the political economy of innovation policy in Ireland, having served as director of the University's Centre for Innovation and Structural Change (CISC) from 2002 to 2006. (CISC is now titled the Whitaker Institute).

He teaches Irish economic history, financial economics/macroeconomics at undergraduate and postgrad level, and he supervises students in respect of final year projects, theses/placements in taught postgraduate programmes, and at PhD level. Dr Kane was previously programme director of the Higher Diploma in Economic Science at NUI Galway, previously director of undergraduate studies in economics, and head of economics at NUI Galway (November 2016 to May 2019).

Find out more about his work on Irish economic history data reflected in the Duanaire project

Duanaire: a treasury of digital data for Irish economic history

Duanaire (pronounced something like doo'nara, meaning anthology or treasury) is building a unique repository of Irish economic history data at NUI Galway. At present, the focus is on 18th century Irish fiscal data, and on a major project near completion to digitise, capture, and make available an extensive dataset on Ireland's 18th century international trade. Duanaire involves a close collaboration between three partners within NUI Galway: the James Hardiman Library, the Whitaker Institute, and the Moore Institute

Research Interests

Keywords: economic history, Irish economic history, fiscal history, economic history data management.

My research interests are principally in Irish economic history, and in particular, the construction of historical datasets, mainly related to Irish public finance, from the 18th century to the present, using a range of web, programming, and relational database technologies. These include Perl, MySQL, and php, as well as the use of OCR technologies for data capture. Current projects are focussed on a major dataset on Ireland's international trade in the 18th century, and on the application of linked data technologies to economic history data.

I have recently worked in maritime economic history, particularly in respect of work on 19th century steamships built in Britain and Ireland, and on an analysis of data on shipping from Lloyd's Register of Shipping from c1780 to 1860, as well as a separate project on the evolution of cotton spinning machinery in 19th century Britain.

I also have an interest in the political economy of innovation policy in Ireland, having served as director of the University's Centre for Innovation and Structural Change (CISC) from 2002 to 2006. (CISC is now titled the Whitaker Institute

Research Projects

	Project	Start Date	End Date
	Customs 15 - A digital data archive of Ireland's International trade 1698-1829	01-JAN-15	31-DEC-22
	Duanaire	01-JAN-15	30-JUN-20

Peer Reviewed Journals

	Year	Publication
	(1999)	'Innovation Policy in Ireland: Economic Ideas and Institutional Diversity' Kane, A. (1999) 'Innovation Policy in Ireland: Economic Ideas and Institutional Diversity'. Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, 28 :115-126 [Details]
	(1995)	'Public Expenditure: Trends and Prospects' Kane, A. (1995) 'Public Expenditure: Trends and Prospects'. Irish Banking Review, [Details]
	(1994)	'Irish Property Rights: A Public Choice Perspective' Kane, A. (1994) 'Irish Property Rights: A Public Choice Perspective'. Studies, [Details]

Other Journals

	Year	Publication
	(2015)	'Ireland 1689-1829' Kane, Aidan J; Walsh, Patrick A; Magennis, Eoin (2015) 'Ireland 1689-1829' Revue de OFCE, 140 :1-5. [Details]

Database

	Year	Publication
	(2009)	Database of Irish central and local government expenditure and revenue 1922/23 to 1963/64, c80,000 items, 2006-2009. Kane, A. (2009) Database of Irish central and local government expenditure and revenue 1922/23 to 1963/64, c80,000 items, 2006-2009. Database [Details]
	(2010)	Database of finances of Grand Jurys of Ireland c. 1775 to 1898 c60,000 items, 2010. Kane, A. (2010) Database of finances of Grand Jurys of Ireland c. 1775 to 1898 c60,000 items, 2010. Database [Details]
	(2011)	Database of detailed components of Irish public debt of central and local government 1922/23 to 1990 c12,000 items, 2011. Kane, A. (2011) Database of detailed components of Irish public debt of central and local government 1922/23 to 1990 c12,000 items, 2011. Database [Details]
	(2011)	Database of revenues of Ireland 1688-1799 c7,000 items, 2011. Kane, A. (2011) Database of revenues of Ireland 1688-1799 c7,000 items, 2011. Database [Details]

Discussion

	Year	Publication
	(2013)	Commentary on Sorenson on Geography and sustainable systems. Kane, Aidan J (2013) Commentary on Sorenson on Geography and sustainable systems. Discussion [Details]

Seminar

	Year	Publication
	(2019)	Ireland's international trade with the Baltic in the 18th century. Aidan Kane (2019) Ireland's international trade with the Baltic in the 18th century. Seminar [Details]

Working Paper

	Year	Publication
	(2020)	After the great inventions: Technological change in English cotton spinning, 1780-1835. Peter M Solar, Pete Maw, John Lyons, Aidan Kane (2020) After the great inventions: Technological change in English cotton spinning, 1780-1835. Working Paper [Details]
	(2001)	Indicators and Evaluation for Science, Technology and Innovation.. Dublin: Irish Council for Science Technology and Innovation. Kane, A. (2001) Indicators and Evaluation for Science, Technology and Innovation.. Dublin: Irish Council for Science Technology and Innovation. Working Paper [Details]
	(2001)	Rationales for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy in Ireland.. Dublin: Working Paper for Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation. Kane, A. (2001) Rationales for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy in Ireland.. Dublin: Working Paper for Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation. Working Paper [Details]
	(2001)	Irish Membership of CERN: an economic evaluation.. Dublin: Report for the Department of Public Enterprise. Kane, A. (2001) Irish Membership of CERN: an economic evaluation.. Dublin: Report for the Department of Public Enterprise. Working Paper [Details]
	(1997)	Into EMU without the UK: managing the consequences.. Galway Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Kane, A. (1997) Into EMU without the UK: managing the consequences.. Galway Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Working Paper [Details]
	(1996)	Monetary Union and Optimal Currency Areas.. Poitiers: Paper for Erasmus Intensive Course. Kane, A. (1996) Monetary Union and Optimal Currency Areas.. Poitiers: Paper for Erasmus Intensive Course. Working Paper [Details]
	(1995)	Fiscal aggregates for the Irish central government since 1922. Dublin Economics Workshop. Kane, A. (1995) Fiscal aggregates for the Irish central government since 1922. Dublin Economics Workshop. Working Paper [Details]
	(1995)	Accounting for Government: the Irish Case.. Foundation for Fiscal Studies. Kane, A. (1995) Accounting for Government: the Irish Case.. Foundation for Fiscal Studies. Working Paper [Details]
	(1993)	Reform in Irish Public Financial Procedures. Foundation for Fiscal Studies. Kane, A. (1993) Reform in Irish Public Financial Procedures. Foundation for Fiscal Studies. Working Paper [Details]

Honours and Awards

	Year	Title	Awarding Body
	1999	Barrington Medal	Statistical and Social Inquiry Society Inquiry

Committees

	Committee	Function	From / To
	Editorial advisory board, for Administration, IPA, Dublin		/
	Archives Strategy Group, NUI Galway	Member	/

Teaching Interests

I teach a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules, including a module on financial economics mainly for 2nd year arts business and economics students, an Irish economic history module mainly taken by second year arts undergraduates, a module on the contemporary Irish economy in a global context mainly taken by final year arts undergraduates, and a postgrad seminar module in financial economics, along with continuing supervision of final year projects, masters thesis, and PhD theses.

Modules Taught

Term/Year	Module Title	Module Code
2019/2020	Seminar in Financial Economics I	EC565
2019/2020	Ireland, Europe, and the Global Economy	EC427
2019/2020	Irish Economic History	EC207

External Collaborators

	Name	Organisation / Institute	Country	Description of Collaboration
	Peter M Solar	Vesalius College, VUB and Université Saint-Louis-Bruxelles	BELGIUM	Joint projects constructing and analysing databases of 19th century British and Irish steamships (c.50,000 data points) and on 18th-19th century ships in Lloyds register (c.200,000 data points), the latter funded through a grant from Lloyds Register Foundation http://www.lrfoundation.org.uk