Changing Demands on Economic Research: The Austrian Institute of Economic Research Since 1980

Over the years, the Austrian Institute of Economic Research has been called upon to respond to a constantly changing brief. After 1980, the economic policy system had to be adapted to a newly opened macroeconomy and the liberalisation of international capital markets. The rising complexity of issues required better statistical underpinnings, large-scale databases, computers, new analytical and forecasting methods, increasingly complex models. Ageing, globalisation and competition at different cost structures emerged as major issues. In all these projects, WIFO is bestirring itself to achieve innovative solutions, with the result that it is frequently very much at the cutting edge of the international discourse. Staff numbers have been greatly enlarged and internationalisation is pushed forward; international contracts now make up a quarter of all of WIFO's work.