ifo Institute for Economic Research

Welcome to the Ifo Institute, one of the largest economic research institutes in Germany. We are pleased to provide information about Ifo and our Dresden branch. Via CESifo, the Ifo Institute co-operates closely with the Center for Economic Studies at Ludwig Maximilians University. CESifo is the name under which the international service products and research results of both organisations are published. The common international homepage of Ifo and CES presents Ifo products in English.

Bridging the gap between theory and practice in the service of science, industry, politics and the general public: this has marked the history of the Ifo Institute since its founding in 1949. Ifo (pronounced e´fo) is a German acronym consisting of "I" for "Information" and "Fo" for Forschung or research, the two principles that guide the Institute’s work. Located near the banks of the Isar River, the Institute has a staff of about 150, including some 75 researchers.

Objectives and Organisation

The Ifo Institute is a service-based research organisation with a three-fold orientation: to conduct economic research, to offer advice to economic policy-makers and to provide services for the research and business communities.

The Ifo Institute is a registered society whose sole purpose is to conduct economic and social research for the benefit of the public. The society consists of the General Meeting, the Executive Board, the Administrative Advisory Committee, the Board of Trustees and the Scientific Advisory Committee.

To learn more about the organisation of research and service departments of the Ifo Institute please refer to the Organisational Chart.

Publications

The periodicals of the Ifo Institute provide regular information on the latest results of the Institute’s research. The Ifo Institute publishes the English-language CESifo Forum and a wide range of German-language periodicals, most importantly the ifo Schnelldienst and ifo Konjunkturperspektiven. To inform non-German speakers on the research and survey activities of the Ifo Institute, ifo Schnelldienst and ifo Konjunkturperspektiven present a short overview of the contents of these Ifo periodicals. Have a look at the current issues:

· CESifo Forum 2/2003 (Summer 2003)
· Munich Economic Summit 2003
· ifo Schnelldienst 14/2003 (31 July 2003) (translation of content page with abstracts)
· ifo Konjunkturperspektiven 7/2003 (July 2003) (translation of content page with abstracts)

New monographs appear in the Ifo series "ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung", "ifo Forschungsberichte" and "ifo Dresden Studien".

Selected Studies Conducted at the Ifo Institute
Consult our presentation of Ifo periodicals and book series.

Business Surveys and Economic Forecasts

The Ifo Institute is internationally renowned for its business surveys. Every month more than 7,000 enterprises are questioned on their appraisals of the business situation and their short-term planning. The confidence indicator frequently referred to as the Ifo Index is derived from the responses to the Ifo Business Survey. The CESifo web site provides you with the most important results of the regular Ifo surveys in its Business Data section, e.g.

· WES: Ifo World Economic Survey (formerly Ifo Economic Survey International, ESI) (latest results)
· Ifo Business Climate Index (latest results)
· Ifo Economic Forecast (latest results)

The extensive data and time series from the Ifo enterprise surveys are available to users throughout the world.

The Ifo business surveys, such as the Ifo World Economic Survey (WES), are based on expert panels. Currently, we still conduct most of them using paper forms. However, we have started to change to online surveys. Participants can access and complete the questionnaires online and send them back to us using Internet technology. Learn more about survey participation via Internet.

Events

· CESifo Calendar of Events
· Ifo Lunchtime Seminar
· Regular Events

Internet Databases

The Ifo Data and Information Centre provides the public with the Institute’s research results and a broad spectrum of information services. Ifo´s Internet Databases

· publications (ifo Docbase, ifo WebOPAC),
· time series (ifo Database),
· and institutional comparisons (Ifo´s Database for Institutional Comparisons in Europe, DICE).

ifo Institute for Economic Research
Poschingerstr 5
81679 München
Tel: +49 (0) 89/92 24-0
Fax: +49 (0) 89-98 53 69
E-Mail: ifo@ifo.de

Press releases

Further Information: www.ifo.de