The Research Institute for Economic Development was established in 1972 as an inter-faculty research unit. At the very outset its mission consisted in integrating various research projects: theoretical, cognitive, methodological and empirical, carried out by faculty members of WSE. The core area of research concerned - at that time - programming of economic development and functioning of national economy. Both, the direction and the area of research, have been maintained till now.
The research of utmost importance and impact on the work of the Institute within the past years was the one conducted in 1980s on sources of economic crisis in Poland. A team headed by Prof. L. Balcerowicz worked on a research project leading to a comprehensive framework of economic reform. Agricultural and rural issues constituted a concurrent field of research. In mid 1980s a pioneer work on business activity in industry was initiated. With the time passing a dynamic development of this kind of research took place. In 1990s business activity surveys have expanded to include agriculture, construction, trade, households, and banking sector.
Nowadays RIED’s research activity focuses on business cycles and economic tendency surveys. The Institute is also involved in systematic research on synthetic indicators of economic activity level: concurrent and leading indicators for the whole economy.
Since 1992 the Institute has been incorporated into the Collegium of Economic Analysis.
In October 2023, two research units were established at the Institute: Business and Consumer Surveys Unit, Economic Growth Research Unit
Outcomes of the research are published in 3 series:
- Papers and Studies of Research Institute for Economic Development SGH
- Reports on Business Activity
- Studies in business activity in the Polish economy (Papers were not published in the years 2007-2015)
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