Profile with Tara McIndoe Calder
Tara McIndoe Calder (Zimbabwe & Hertford 2006) currently works as a senior economist at the Central Bank of Ireland. She produces research examining the Irish labour market as well as factors affecting the distribution of income, wealth and spending in the Euro Area. She previously worked on credit risk modelling and Small and Medium Enterprise credit allocation as well as a broad range of development economics issues including factor flows, trade, migration, capital flows and macro finance (inflation, government revenue, financial institutions). Tara is the secretary of the Irish Society for Women in Economics (ISWE), a standing committee of the Irish Economic Association that works to enhance the diversity and representation of the profession in Ireland. Tara holds a PhD and BA from Trinity College, Dublin, and an MPhil from the University of Oxford.
Twitter: @calder_tara
LinkedIn: Tara McIndoe-Calder
Rhodes Project: Where do you call home?
Tara McIndoe Calder: Both Ireland and Zimbabwe hold special places in my heart.
Rhodes Project: When you were a kid, what did you aspire to be later in life?
Tara McIndoe Calder: When I was very little I wanted to be a “Chartered And Countant” because that’s what my mom and dad were. When I finished school I wanted to do something business related. Once I got to university I realised that I wanted to work in a public policy environment, providing evidence to policy makers to enhance their decision making frameworks.
Rhodes Project: What surprised you most about Oxford?
Tara McIndoe Calder: I think the thing that surprised me most was how the economics departments at Trinity and Oxford could be so different from each other. The thing I enjoyed the most was the college and Rhodes House side of life at Oxford. I hadn’t expected college life to be such a rich, social experience. Because lots of people from the Rhodes community and the college community are far away from home it was really lovely - what good friends you can make in a very short period of time.
Rhodes Project: What is an average work day like for you?
Tara McIndoe Calder: Currently it involves getting ready for the day with my husband and three young children. I get into work (either in my attic or Central Bank of Ireland offices, depending on the day) at around eight and have a quiet, productive (coffee-filled) hour before everyone else arrives comes online. My job entails thinking carefully about the most pressing policy questions relating to what is happening in 1) the labour market and 2) to household economic resilience: assessing the joint distribution of households’ income, spending and wealth and how these interact with other economic variables at a macroeconomic level. The exciting part of my job involves discussions with internal and external stakeholders regarding policy issues around the current economic risks and opportunities in Ireland. Then I leave at around five to go home and spend time with my children at their sports activities.
Rhodes Project: You joined the Bank (after the Global Financial Criss) at a time when central bankers were more in the spotlight than they’ve perhaps ever been before. That has not dissipated over time and in fact has become even more heightened recently due to current period of high inflation. Does the media interest in how central banks deal with the fallout from the recent recessions affect you at all?
Tara McIndoe Calder: Yes! In my organisation, the Central Bank of Ireland, we publish much of our research and policy work, specifically to inform discussion around the important policy aspects of the current period high inflation. So to the extent that the work that I do is picked up by the media and discussed more widely, I think it’s viewed in quite a positive light. I think that an important aspect of the job is to make sure that the work we do is discussed widely and openly so I really enjoy that part of it.
Rhodes Project: Is there anything about public perceptions of economics or economists that consistently frustrates you?
Tara McIndoe Calder: I do think that economists, and in particular central bankers and academics, are perhaps seen to be a little removed from people’s everyday lives. They might look at issues which people who are dealing with financial challenges might think of as quite esoteric. I do struggle with that misconception. The work that we do is very strongly founded in evidence-based policy development. It’s a challenge to make sure people know that -- that when they look to the organisation they can find useful information.
Rhodes Project: Do you find yourself drawing parallels between your own academic research on developing economies and events of the last few years within the global north?
Tara McIndoe Calder: I still think of myself as first and foremost a development economist so it is strange for me, in a way, to be working in a developed country central bank. But to the extent that Ireland is a small, peripheral European country, in the middle of an economic crisis, working here is not so different from developing country work. My PhD thesis broadly related to understanding institutions better, especially during times of change or crisis. This is currently very relevant to my current job.
Rhodes Project: If you had unlimited resources to address any macroeconomic issue, which would you focus on and why?
Tara McIndoe Calder: My research has focused on migration in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly between Mozambique and South Africa and agricultural reform in Zimbabwe. The key lesson is that institutions are really important and it’s crucial that they are constructed correctly and given a lot of support. So if I had unlimited resources I think it would go towards understanding institutions and understanding how to evolve them in a way that copes with lots of social, political and historical changes.
Rhodes Project: Who is your favourite real life heroine?
Tara McIndoe Calder: I think that women are lacking in senior positions in many organisations, which is something that I engaged with while I was at Oxford and remain committed to in my current role as secretary of ISWE. There aren’t enough female role models in academia and in the private and public sectors. At Trinity there is a Professor, Carol Newman, who is ambitious, impactful and excellent at what she does. She received her doctorate whilst I was an undergraduate and I respect her enormously.
Rhodes Project: What do you do to relax?
Tara McIndoe Calder:
Explore new and beautiful parts of Ireland with my family: greenways, beaches, mountains, parks!
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