The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) is a think-tank based in Vienna, Austria which conducts research on Central and Eastern Europe, CIS and the Balkans. Its main research areas are: macroeconomic studies, economic integration, EU enlargement, industry and trade, foreign direct investment, labour and social affairs and regional development. It runs the WIIW Balkan Observatory (with the London School of Economics and Political Science), which serves as a portal on research and statistics on economic development issues in Southeast Europe. The Observatory is also the forum for the Global Development Network Southeast Europe (GDN SEE), where all papers resulting from Research Competitions conducted by wiiw are published.

Cooperation between wiiw and GDN – with the support of the Austrian National Bank (OENB) and the Ministry of Finance (BMF) – has now been going on successfully for several years. The aim of the cooperation is to serve as a hub for South-East Europe (SEE). In this function wiiw works as an independent partner of GDN, setting its own research agenda and with its own project management. The cooperation supports research of high quality in the region and connects researchers in the region with the global activities of the GDN. It is also intended to contribute to the building of capacity for research and policy evaluation by connecting economists and social scientists of SEE with those from the European Union (EU) and the rest of the world.

Five rounds of research have until now been conducted on SEE. In the first round, 2000 - 2002, macroeconomic developments, programmes and policies were analysed.  In the second round, 2002 - 2004, reforms, enterprise development and EU integration were the main topics of research. The third round centered on the ‘Impact of Rich Countries’ Policies on Poverty’. The fourth round dealt with inequality, migration and fiscal policies and the fifth round with inequality and public finance.

Wiiw’s contribution in the cooperation with GDN has consisted of several components:

• establishing and implementing the SEE research network through research competitions that are organised by wiiw; guidance for researchers who participate in the competition, workshops and dissemination activities via the Balkan Observatory (a joint project with LSE);
• participating actively in the Global Research Project (GRP), through papers by wiiw researchers; mentoring of young researchers from the region who participate in the GRP;
• contributing to the review process of the Regional Research Competition of GDN via its Central European hub in Prague (that is run by CERGE);
• wiiw in-house research.

All papers resulting from the wiiw-GDN partnership can be downloaded from the Balkan Observatory or from the GDN Working Paper Series.

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