Sunny Outlook

Present fine, future even brighter: Munich's Ifo Institute for Economic Research

The Leibniz Association Senate made public this week its pronouncement concerning the evaluation of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research. On a regular basis, the Bund-Laender Commission for Educational Planning and Research Promotion, a body that oversees and funds research and service facilities, commissions evaluations of such facilities in order to assess their performance and decide upon funding policies.

These evaluations are carried out once every six or seven years by the Leibniz Association's Senate, a body of independent external experts. On the basis of its evaluation findings, the Senate then makes its recommendation for further funding and category classification to the Bund-Laender Commission.

After having been criticised during the previous evaluation by the German Science Council (1996) for its insufficient research output and consequently reclassified as a "service-based research institution", this time around Ifo ranks among the winners: in its pronouncement released on June 14, the Leibniz Association Senate subscribed to the views of the Evaluation Committee that assessed the Ifo Institute last October.

The Evaluation Committee stated in its Evaluation Report, which forms part of the Senate's pronouncement, that Ifo's output, despite dramatic funding cuts and a difficult restructuring process, "has increased tremendously in terms of publications, organisation of scientific events, and policy advice" and that Ifo today makes "a very strong impression". The Institute has been fundamentally reorganised and "has complied with the recommendations [of the German Science Council] very satisfactorily", adding that "the President should be praised for these achievements".
           
The Ifo Institute's research activities are considered to be "very good in most parts, in some cases excellent". Policy consulting is also "regarded as very good". The Ifo Institute has established a firm presence in research, an achievement which "a rapidly growing number of high-quality publications and research activities bear witness to".

Today the Ifo Institute enjoys an outstanding position in international economic research, to which the international CESifo Research Network and the close association with the University of Munich have both contributed. The Committee considered CESifo "to be a great institution for knowledge transfer and international co-operation".

The Institute's "strengths lie in its involvement and visibility in the economic policy debate and in the provision of valuable services for research and different groups in society". There has been movement of the service areas, it states,  a process that is not yet completed and leaves room for further improvement. In any case, the Ifo Institute "has been successful in fulfilling the tasks of a research-based service Institute". 

The Senate fully concurs with the Committee's assessment and regards Ifo's performance in economic research and policy consulting as mostly very good to excellent. The services are, on the one hand, characterised as positively outstanding and as a paradigm for a successful combination of research and services; on the other, a criticism is made regarding the further development of the methodological approaches used, which due to staffing constraints could only be undertaken with a certain delay. Since Professor Sinn took office as the new President, the Institute has been fundamentally restructured and has carved a niche for itself as a centre for forward-looking empirical economic policy advice. Ifo today is excellently embedded in the international economic research community.

Based on the Institute's predominantly very good research performance, the Leibniz Association's Senate concurs with the opinion of the Evaluation Committee that the Ifo Institute has the potential for a reclassification as a Research Institute. In this respect, the Senate sees no difference between the Ifo Institute and the other economic research institutions within the Leibniz Association that would justify different funding schemes. It recommends the Federal and State governments to determine in 2009 whether the requirements have been fulfilled for a classification as a Research Institution and asks Ifo to submit in a timely manner a coherent research programme on the basis of which a recommendation to the Federal and State governments for continued funding as a Research Institution can be made.

The Leibniz Senate's resolution is a major milestone in the history of the Ifo Institute. Ifo is pleased with the very positive evaluation and greets the unrestricted funding recommendation, in particular for its setting the course for a reclassification as a Research Institute. Hans-Werner Sinn, the President of the Ifo Institute, said that "now that Ifo's position in Germany has been consolidated, we can intensify our efforts to turn the Institute into a truly international research platform in Europe".

The rigorous evaluations conducted regularly on behalf of the Leibniz Association serve to certify the scientific quality of the research and service institutions it oversees and have come to be regarded as a seal of approval from this great research association. The independent Leibniz Senate has taken over the responsibility from the Science Council for the quality control of the Leibniz Institutes. To fulfil this mission, it establishes evaluation committees comprised of external experts that evaluate each Institute in accordance with internationally recognised scientific standards.

• Leibniz Association's Overall Pronouncement (pdf file, in German)
• Leibniz Association Senate Pronouncement (German), Ifo Presentation (English), Evaluation Report (English), Ifo Pronouncement on Evaluation (English), all in one pdf file