Eleven Research Units Make up the Research Division of the German Economic Institute (IW).
Research Units

Labor Market and Working World
The field of competence Labor Market and Working World deals with the question of how the labour market is changing due to globalisation and digitalisation, among other things.
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Vocational Education and Professionals
The scientists of the competence field Vocational Education and Professionals analyze what contribution vocational training makes to companies.

Vocational Participation and Inclusion
The competence field Vocational Participation and Inclusion develops a broad range of information to promote the potential of people with disabilities.

Education, Migration and Innovation
The IW's Education, Immigration and Innovation competence area is researching how education and immigration contribute to securing skilled labor.

Digitalization, Structural Change and Competition
The researchers of the Structural Change and Competition unit monitor corporate activity in a constantly changing market environment.

Financial and Real Estate Markets
Researchers in the Financial Markets and Real Estate Markets competence area study the economic significance of financial and real estate markets.

International Economics and Economic Outlook
Scientists in the competence area International Economic Order and Business Cycle call for open markets and rules at European and global level.

Public Finance, Social Security, Distribution
Researchers in the competence area Public Finance, Social Security, Distribution study the fiscal effects of political measures.

Tariff Policy and Industrial Relations
The competence field Tariff Policy and Industrial Relations researches workplace co-determination, the wage-setting process and income policy.

Environment, Energy, Infrastructure
IW scientists in the Environment, Energy, Infrastructure competence area study the interaction between the economy and the environment.
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Behavioral Economics and Business Ethics
Researchers in the competence field of behavioral economics and business ethics analyze the influence of values, norms, rules and laws (institutions).
Understanding Science
- The scientific work of the German Economic Institute is independent and solution-oriented, internationally networked and socially relevant, methodologically open and interdisciplinary. We address the scientific discourse of experts, the general public as well as opinion leaders in politics, business and society. We want to be an audible voice in the economic policy discourse in Germany.
Our work is innovative and confronts the scientific discourse: On the basis of scientifically recognized standards, we apply new methods, use new data sets, discuss new arguments and provide solution-oriented answers to current questions in economic analysis and economic policy. Our statements are theoretically founded and, where it is methodologically and empirically possible, evidence-based. We ensure that both the data basis and the methodological approaches are comprehensible. Modern methods of empirical economic and social research are as much a part of our tools as in-depth analyses of the institutional and political-economic conditions of economic developments.
We do not exclude any theoretical and methodological approach, because diversity and competition promote progress in the sciences. The decisive factor is not a traditional paradigm, but whether and how a scientific approach leads further in the search for decision-guiding and action-relevant knowledge. Our research is not limited to economics, but is connectable to the debates and insights of other disciplines, such as ethics, history, education, political science, psychology, law, and sociology.
- Our research is aware of its normative conditionality. Every science of human social action requires a normative clarification of the concept of man. Freedom and (co-)responsibility are the central values for us. We see the human being as a being capable of freedom and responsibility, who in this sense is enabled and called upon to competent decisions and actions. In our view, open, liberal and democratic societies require a liberal and competitive economic order that counts personal responsibility and shared responsibility among its constitutive elements.