Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH)
IWH’s tasks are economic research and research-based advising of economic policy. With its four research departments – Macroeconomics, Financial Markets, Structural Change and Productivity as well as Laws, Regulations and Factor Markets –, IWH conducts economic research and provides economic policy recommendations, which are founded on evidence-based research. In the focus of its research, IWH investigates processes of economic convergence and the role of the financial system regarding the (re-)allocation of production factors, structural change, the facilitation of productivity and innovation, productivity growth as well as macroeconomic dynamics and stability.
The institute among other things participates in the Joint Economic Forecast, a six-monthly expert review on behalf of the German Federal Government. Currently, IWH for example coordinates a project entitled MICROPROD („Raising EU Productivity: Lessons from Improved Micro Data“), a research project on productivity growth. Another, interdisciplinary research project called ENTRANCES (Energy Transitions from Coal and Carbon: Effects on Societies“) aims at examining the socio-economic effects of the coal phase-out in Europe. The European Union is funding both MICROPROD and ENTRANCES as part of the EU Research Programme Horizon 2020.
The institute was founded on January 1, 1992. In terms of its legal status, IWH is a registered association. It pursues aims directly and exclusively related to the public interest, especially research interests.