Cathal O'Donoghue is the Head of the Rural Economy and Development Programme of Teagasc, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority having previously worked at the National University of Ireland, Galway, the University of Cambridge and the Economic and Social Research Institute.

He was CEO of the Irish Commissionn for the Economic Development of Rural Areas 2012-2013, is the current President of International Microsimulation Association, a member of the Executive of the Agricultural Economics Society. He has Adjunct appointments at UCD, NUI Galway and the University of Maastricht.

His research has involved the design and use of microsimulation models for the evaluation of public policy. e.g. SWITCH (Irish tax- benefit model at the ESRI, Dublin); LIAM (Life-cycle Income Analysis Model at LSE); EUROMOD (European tax-benefit model at Cambridge U.); Pensim2 (UK Pensions projection model at the Department for Work and Pensions, London); SLIEVE (Sri Lanka inequality and environmental evaluation model at the World Bank), SMILE (Simulation Model of the Irish Local Economy).

He has acted as a consultant to a range of national and international organisations. He was convenor of the UK Department of Work and Pensions' Expert Group on Economic Demography. He is a member of the Fund Council of the CGIAR Consortium.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in December 2002.