Dr Fergal O'Connor
Back
Contact
Senior Lecturer
Economics AL2.27 Áras na Laoi Cork University Business School University College Cork
Biography
Fergal is a senior lecturer in Financial Economics and has lectured in finance and economics since 2009. He holds a PhD in Finance from Trinity College Dublin which was funded by the London Bullion Market Association. He began lecturing at UCC and went on to work at Lancashire Business School and the York Management School in the UK. He rejoined the Economics Department in UCC in 2018.
His research interests include: the financial economics of metals, particularly the London precious metals market, Financial History, and Sustainable Finance. He also works on issues around the macroeconomic drivers of the demand for Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic drinks using large international datasets. He supervises a Science Foundation Ireland funded research project on “External Shocks and Fiscal Sustainability,” gathering and analysing long-run historical Irish macroeconomic and financial data.
He is the programme director for the MSc. Finance (Banking and Risk Management) and his teaching focus on financial economics, capital markets and econometrics. He currently supervises four PhD students across areas such as: Irish Economic History, Sustainable Finance and Carbon Markets, and Financial Literacy.
He is an external examiner for finance at the University of Northampton (UK). He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Global Commodities Applied Research Digest (GCARD) in J.P. Morgan Centre for Commodities at the University of Colorado, Denver Business School, and an Associate Editor at two peer-reviewed ABS ranked journals: "International Review of Financial Analysis" and "Research in International Business and Finance".
He acts as an expert academic advisor to the London Bullion Market Association and the NASDAQ on London Precious Metals market liquidity issues concerning the Basel III banking regulations. He also advises the World Gold Council on gold price modelling and delivers educational workshops to Bullion Market participants and Central Bankers
Grants and Honours
- 31/12/2019 - Honorarium from the World Gold Council for study of the Gold Market
- 04/06/2018 - Summer Research-Intern Grant, University of York
- 04/09/2017 - Co-Supervisor of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) PhD Bursary Holder, London Bullion Market Association
- 02/01/2017 - Gold Fixing Data Collection Project, The Rothschild Archive
- 04/01/2016 - Students as Researcher Scheme, York St. John University
- 05/09/2011 - PhD Bursary Holder, LBMA, London Bullion Market Association
Other Activities
- 23/02/2023 - 'Why would anyone want to invest in gold?', RTE Brainstorm
- 11/10/2022 - 'Analysis of Price Break Points in the EU ETS', Sustainable Markets Workshop. University of Southern Denmark,
- 15/06/2022 - 'What drives on versus off-trade beer consumption Internationally?' A Panel Analysis of 107 countries Price, Income and Cross Price Elasticity of Demand',Beeronomics, Trinity College Dublin,
- 16/03/2022 - Quoted in Bloomberg, 'The $140 Billion Question: Can Russia Sell Its Huge Gold Pile?', Bloomberg
- 01/09/2021 - External Examiner for Finance, University of Northampton
- 02/06/2021 - Fungibility in Commodities Markets: The Impact of the COVID 19 Pandemic on the London and New York
- 21/01/2021 - Industry Presentation, Exploring the LBMA Trade Data’, London Bullion Market Association, London
- 01/09/2020 - Gold, 'At the Margin: An Irish Economics Podcast', Episode 34, Belfast, https://shows.acast.com/the-irish-economics-podcast/episodes/34-gold-dr-fergal-oconnor-ucc
- 25/06/2020 - Gold's Place in a Portfolio post-COVID-19, London Bullion Market Association
- 22/04/2020 - How has gold fared as a safe haven in the pandemic?, London Bullion Market Association
- 01/09/2019 - Modelling Gold Prices through a Supply and Demand Framework, The World Gold Council
- 10/07/2019 - The Economic and Social History Society of Ireland Conference 2019
- 06/06/2019 - Member, Consultant Team. London Gold Market Liquidity, London Bullion Market Association
- 03/06/2019 - Gold Valuation Framework, The World Gold Council
- 01/01/2019 - Keynote Speaker, Public Seminar, Guildhall London - London Bullion Market Liquidity
- 19/06/2018 - Conference Presenter, 15th Infiniti Finance Conference
- 04/06/2018 - Conference Presenter, The York Management School Summer Conference The York Management School, York
- 01/06/2018 - Industry Presentation, What happened in the gold market before 1968?
- 16/08/2017 - Conference Presenter, European Association of Banking History The European Association for Banking and Financial History, Frankfurt
- 01/12/2017 - Associate Editor, Research in International Business and Finance
- 02/01/2017 - Editor, Special Issue International Review of Financial Analysis
- 01/03/2016 - The Future of Money, Institute of Technology Tralee
- 01/11/2015 - The economic impact of the UK Snooker Championship on York’s Economy, BBC
- 01/06/2014 - Fixing the Fix - the arguments around reform of our century-old way of valuing gold, BBC
Pedagogic Experiences
- 2022 - Programme Director, MSc. Finance (Banking and Risk Management
- 2020 - Chair of Committee - CUBS Workload Distribution Committee
- 2019 - Programme Co-Director, BSc Finance
- 2018 - External Examiner, Finance, Durham University
- 2015 - External Examiner, Finance, Newcastle Business School
Thesis
- 2020 - Gold and The Capital asset pricing Model, University of York (Thesis Primary Supervisor)
- 2021 - Liquidity of the London Gold Market, Trinity Business School, TCD (Thesis Co-Supervisor)
- 2019 - The Physical Gold Market, Trinity Business School, TCD (Thesis Co-Supervisor)
- 2021 - Macroeconomic and Financial Leading Indicators of Economic Activity and Sovereign Bond Yields: A Practitioner Perspective, University College Cork (Thesis Jury member)
- 2023 - The Role of Non-Bank Debt in the Irish SME Finance Sector, University College Cork (Thesis Reviewer)
Publications
Journal article
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2022 | O'CONNOR, F. HE, Z. and THIJSSEN, J. (2022) 'Identifying proxies for risk-free assets: Evidence from the zero-beta capital asset pricing model', Research in International Business and Finance, 63 |
| 2020 | O'CONNOR, F. (2020) Monthly Silver Price (New York and London) and Dollar Sterling Exchange rate (1878-1953). Mendeley Data. United States: Elsevier Inc.. Details |
| 2020 | CORBET, S., O'CONNOR, F. (2020). Where was the global price of silver established? Evidence from London and New York (1878–1953). Finance Research Letters. Details |
| 2018 | HE, Z., O'CONNOR, F., THIJSSEN, J. (2018). Is gold a Sometime Safe Haven or an Always Hedge for equity investors? A Markov-Switching CAPM approach for US and UK stock indices. International Journal of Financial Studies. Details |
| 2017 | VIGNE, S., LUCEY, B., O'CONNOR, F., YAROVAYA, L. (2017). The financial economics of white precious metals — A survey. International Review of Financial Analysis. Details |
| 2016 | LUCEY, M. E., O'CONNOR, F. A. (2016). Mind the gap: Psychological barriers in gold and silver prices. Finance Research Letters. Details |
| 2016 | O'CONNOR, F., LUCEY, B. M., BAUR, D. G. (2016). Do gold prices cause production costs? International evidence from country and company data. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money. Details |
| 2016 | LUCEY, B. M., O'CONNOR, F. (2016). Are gold bugs coherent? Applied Economics Letters, 24 (2), 90-94. doi:10.1080/13504851.2016.1164813. Details |
| 2015 | O'CONNOR, F. A., LUCEY, B. M., BATTEN, J. A., BAUR, D. G. (2015). The financial economics of gold — A survey. International Journal of Financial Studies. Details |
| 2014 | O'CONNOR, F. (2014). Rationality in precious metals forward markets: Evidence of behavioural deviations in the gold markets. Journal of Multinational Financial Management. Details |
| 2014 | LUCEY, B. M., LARKIN, C., O'CONNOR, F. (2014). Gold markets around the world – who spills over what, to whom, when?. Applied Economics Letters. Details |
| 2013 | DOYLE, E., O'CONNOR, F. (2013). Innovation capacities in advanced economies: Relative performance of small open economies. Research in International Business and Finance. Details |
| 2013 | LUCEY, B. M., O'CONNOR, F. A. (2013). Do bubbles occur in the gold price? An investigation of gold lease rates and Markov Switching models. Details |
| 2013 | LUCEY, B. M., LARKIN, C., O'CONNOR, F. A. (2013). London or New York: where and when does the gold price originate?. Applied Economics Letters. Details |
Book chapter
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2021 | O'CONNOR, F. and LUCEY, M. (2021) 'The incomplete history of “My Big Coin”', in: Corbet, S. (ed) Understanding cryptocurrency fraud. United States: De Gruyter, pp. 97–110 Details |
| 2013 | O'CONNOR, F., LUCEY, B. M. (2015). World Metal Markets. World Scientific Publishing Co.. Details |
DATA SeT
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2020 | O'CONNOR, F. (2020). Monthly Silver Price (New York and London) and Dollar Sterling Exchange rate (1878-1953). Mendeley Data. |
| 2019 | O'CONNOR, F. (2019). Daily London Gold Price Data – 1919-1968. Rothschild Archive. |
MAGAZINE ARTICLE
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2019 | O'CONNOR, F. (2019). What Happened in the London Gold Market during the Gold Standard: 1925 - 1931. London Bullion Market Association. |
| 2019 | BLAGG, M., O'CONNOR, F. (2019). After the War is Over, The London Gold Market Reopens: 1954 – 1968. The Alchemist. |
| 2019 | O'CONNOR, F. (2019). Gold Investing/Hoarding in the Free 1930’s London Market (1931-39). The Alchemist. |
| 2018 | O'CONNOR, F. (2018). The Formerly Missing Gold Price Data: 1919-1925. London Bullion Market Association. |
| 2013 | O'CONNOR, F. (2013). The Behaviour of the Spot and Forward Market. |
NEWSLETTER ARTICLE
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2016 | O'CONNOR, F. (2016). India’s golden quest to tackle ‘black money’ and the lessons from a century ago. |
| 2016 | O'CONNOR, F. (2016). Gold Mining Costs don’t provide a floor for gold prices.. |
| 2014 | O'CONNOR, F., TANKARD, W., LUCEY, B. (2014). Do extraction costs drive gold prices?. The Alchemist. |
| 2013 | O'CONNOR, F., LUCEY, B. (2013). Bubbles in Gold?. The Alchemist. |
| 2012 | O'CONNOR, F., LUCEY, B. (2012). Gold’s negative relationship to the US dollar. The Alchemist |
| 2012 | LUCEY, B., LARKIN, C., O'CONNOR, F. (2012). London or New York: Where does the gold price come from?. The Alchemist. |
| 2011 | O'CONNOR, F., LUCEY, B. (2011). The real price of gold. The Alchemist. |
REPORT
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2017 |
O'CONNOR, F. (2017). Is Inflation Hedging a reason to save in Gold?. The Global Commodities Applied Research Digest. |