Institut de recherches économiques et sociales (IRES)

Within IMMAQ, IRES has its own research policy, affiliated researchers and administrative staff. IRES has about 17 faculty members, 5 experienced researchers and 35 young researchers. Since its creation, IRES has always promoted deep interactions between fundamental research, applied research and policy recommendations in economics. Hence, our staff members publish articles in leading international journals and have a solid experience in advising private and public decisions makers. 

Research activities rely on varied tools such as pure theoretical models, general equilibrium, computational economics and calibration methods, econometrics, case studies, historical analyses, etc. They are mainly organized around four domains: Research in macroeconomics, Labor economics, social policies and evaluation, Research in international economics, and Research on interdisciplinary topics (including economic demography and intergenerational issues). 

Interactions with decision makers are multiple. IRES provides works that are of direct relevance for policy and decision makers out of the university on a varied set of issues related to the labor market, the business cycle and macroeconomic policies, growth and development, migration, trade policy. Every quarter, the Service d’Analyse Economique produces a detailed analysis of short-term economic prospects in Belgium, complemented with forecasts. Through our series Regards Economiques, IRES members are more and more involved in socio-economic debates. We organize the Séminaire de Politique Economique, whose objective of is to incite our members to popularize their research and stress their policy implications. Our staff members also write reports for international and national institutions.