The Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) is a research centre located in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
LISER is a Luxembourgish public research institute under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Its research focus lies in the field of social and economic policy, including the spatial dimension. This comprises topics like poverty, inequality, education, social inclusion, employment, unemployment, health, housing, mobility, and regional convergence. The aim is to improve the understanding of causal relationships and to provide sound evidence for the impact of institutional settings and policy options on outcomes. Based on empirical evidence, the institute aims at providing well-grounded and clear-cut answers to policy relevant questions. The results are published in form of research reports, monographs and scientific articles.
LISER has been integrated into a unified legal framework for the Luxembourgish research institutes based on the law of 3 December 2014. It has an annual budget of approximately 18,5 million euro, of which 60% is allocated by the government, and 40% are coming from project related funding resources. Governmental funding is based on a multi-annual performance contract.
Research
Luxembourg and the greater region provide a laboratory for investigating social policy issues that are of key importance for the process of European integration. Substantial institutional differentials within a relatively small distance and their impact on cross-border activities like firm location, household mobility, monetary flows, and the like are generating an abundance of research topics, which are of relevance for a better understanding of the mechanisms of economic and social convergence or divergence.
LISER contributes to the advancement of scientific knowledge in social and economic matters across the activities of its three research departments "Living Conditions", "Labour Market" and "Urban Development and Mobility". In parallel, the institute aligns itself with national and European priorities and fosters interdisciplinarity by focusing its research work on three priority research programmes: "Crossing Borders", "Health and Health Systems" and "Digital Transformation".
LISER hosts two complementary infrastructures, key drivers of its research development and excellence.
The Data Centre, which consists of two pillars: the data collection capability (direct and indirect data collection), and the data archiving and data management capability. The Behavioural and Experimental Economics dedicated to investigating human decision-making by means of experiments is performed in controlled environments. Its experimental approach contributes to improving the understanding of human behaviour in a large variety of socioeconomic contexts.
LISER aims to be an internationally recognised socio-economic research institute specialising in the analysis of societal changes. Through its inter-and-multidisciplinary research, it makes a proactive and targeted contribution to the sustainable and inclusive development of societies at the national and international levels.
The institute's staff consists of about 180 employees (including the survey and data center), with more than 50% of the staff being researchers, mainly from the fields of economics, sociology, and geography.
Labour Market
The main mission of the department is to produce research that is both excellent and impactful, and more specifically, to analyse the effects of public policies and societal changes on employment and on the workplace.
The department's key themes revolve around:
The impact of public policies on employment in a context of high cross border mobility and; How current socioeconomic challenges (such as digital transformations, diversity and ageing of the workforce) in the workplace impact firms' modes of organisation and performance, employees' skills and behaviour, and labour relations. These issues are timely and relevant for Luxembourg as well as for the European Union.
The department's research is multidisciplinary (economics, statistics, sociology, political science, law) and makes use of various tools (policy evaluation, quantitative, experimental and qualitative methods). Through the Labour Market Observatory, the department uses its research infrastructure and competences to advise policy makers and inform the public about new findings in these fields.
Living Conditions
The mission of the department is to produce scientifically high-level and socially relevant research on 'Public Policies, Welfare and Socio-economic Inequalities'.