The Institute, founded in 1914, is an international center for economic research and documentation. The Institute focuses its research on international economics. The main areas of research include: Business cycle analyses focus on the theoretical and methodical foundations of explaining and forecasting short-term economic trends. Increasingly, microeconomic approaches are used, providing the basis for the Institute’s analyses and forecasts of short-term trends in the most important industrial countries. Economic growth, long-term structural change and employment trends in the industrial countries are analyzed. The processes of adjustment in these countries that are due to changes in the international division of labor, to demand shifts caused by economic growth, and to technological innovations are examined.
Other long-term projects analyze how growth centers shift within the European Union, which regions can manage (and utilize) economic structural change most efficiently, and what can be done in those regions that are lagging behind. From a longer term point of view, industrialization and growth in developing countries and newly industrializing countries are examined. The principal question addressed is how these countries can successfully join the international division of labor and thereby increase trade with each other, and attract additional foreign resources.
Areas of particular interest include the international monetary system and capital markets, as well as environmental problems. The Institute offers an Advanced Studies Program in International Economic Policy. The Institute’s Library is one of the world’s largest libraries for economics and social sciences and the Institute’s Archives have a comprehensive collection of newspaper cuttings spanning seven decades.