IZA Institute of Labor Economics

IZA - Institute of Labor Economics
Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit
AbbreviationIZA
Formation1998
Dissolved2025
TypeEconomic research institute and think tank
Legal statusnon-profit limited liability company
Location
President
Klaus Zumwinkel
Director
None
Websitewww.iza.org

The IZA – Institute of Labor Economics (German: Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit), was a private, independent economic research institute and academic network focused on the analysis of global labor markets and headquartered in Bonn. It existed between 1998 and 2025.

History

Founded in 1998, IZA was a non-profit limited-liability organization supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation[1] and other national and international sources.[2] Until 2016, the organisation was formally called the Institute for the Study of Labor, commonly abbreviated as IZA.[3]

Restructuring

On March 1, 2016, the Institute for the Study of Labor was restructured by Klaus Zumwinkel, CEO of the Deutsche Post Stiftung and president of IZA. A new institute on behavior and inequality research was founded while IZA will put more emphasis on policy-relevant research. Founding director Klaus F. Zimmermann, who did not accept these developments, left IZA on 1 March 2016.[4] The number of staff was reduced from 60 to about 30.[5]

Decline and closure

Following reorganization, IZA suffered from several years of internal turmoil and a leadership vacuum. In late 2023, behavioral economist Armin Falk withdrew from the leadership race following protests from hundreds of research fellows, despite being fully exonerated of previous misconduct allegations by an independent investigation at the University of Bonn. The previous CEO, Simon Jäger, resigned after less than two years in the role due to restructuring plans that raised concerns regarding the institute's financial viability.[5]

In February 2025, the board of the Deutsche Post Foundation, led by Klaus Zumwinkel, decided to discontinue the operation of IZA as of 31 December 2025.[6] Prominent economists, including Nobel laureate David Card, an IZA fellow, described the closure as a "very serious loss" for the field, particularly for junior scholars who relied on the IZA network for visibility and professional development.

Work

IZA ran the world's largest research network in economic science, comprising over 1,300 international Research Fellows and Affiliates, as well as Policy Fellows from business, politics, society and the media.[7]

By the mid-2010s RePEc ranked IZA as the second best labor economics research institution in the world [8] as well as second of the top worldwide think tanks.[9] In Germany it was the number one top economic institution.[10]

In conducting labor market research, IZA cooperated closely with the Economics Department at the University of Bonn and the department's graduate education program at the Bonn Graduate School of Economics.[11]

IZA's main focus is the economic analysis of national and international labor markets within a broad range of research areas. Furthermore, IZA provides policy advice on crucial labor market issues for national and international policy institutions.[2]

Research

IZA's research activities concentrated on eleven program areas:

  • Evaluation of Labor Market Programs
  • Education
  • Gender and Family
  • Behavioral and Personnel Economics
  • Labor Markets and Institutions
  • Environment and Labor Markets
  • Labor in the Macroeconomy
  • Labor Statistics
  • Mobility and Migration
  • Labor in Emerging and Post-Transition Economies
  • Employment and Development

To promote research on labor markets in developing countries, IZA launched in 2006, together with the World Bank, a joint research program on "Employment and Development".[12] In addition, in its special research area "Growth and Labor Markets in Low Income Countries", IZA coordinates for the UK Department for International Development a substantial research program to promote growth and employment in low income countries.[13]

Publications

IZA publishes the series Research in Labor Economics together with Emerald Group Publishing.

In addition, from 2012 to 2023 IZA published the IZA journal series, which consisted of originally five and later three open access journals that focus on different aspects of international labor markets. The journals were published on IZA's behalf by SpringerOpen (until 2017) and Sciendo (afterwards) and did not charge any author fees.[14] After a 2017 reorganization, the following three journals were published:[15]

  • IZA Journal of Labor Economics
  • IZA Journal of Labor Policy
  • IZA Journal of Development and Migration (formerly IZA Journal of Migration)

The two original journals abolished in 2017 are:

  • IZA Journal of Labor & Development
  • IZA Journal of European Labor Studies

In 2023, IZA discontinued the IZA journal series altogether.[16]

From 2014 to 2025, IZA published, together with Bloomsbury Publishing, IZA World of Labor, an open access resource providing empirically founded research articles on labor economics for a non-academic readership.[17]

Awards

IZA Prize in Labor Economics

Main article: IZA Prize in Labor Economics

From 2002 to 2020 IZA awarded the annual IZA Prize in Labor Economics for exceptional academic accomplishments in the field of labor economics.[18] It was endowed with an award of 50,000 euros and ranked among the most prestigious economics awards worldwide.

Young Labor Economist Award

In 2006, IZA also established the "IZA Young Labor Economist Award" to honor an outstanding published paper in labor economics written by researchers under 40 years of age at the time of publication. The prize money of 5,000 Euros was shared between the authors.[19] Winners of the price included include: Oriana Bandiera, Raj ChettyAlexandre Mas and Martha Bailey.

References

  1. ^ "History". Deutsche Post Foundation. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  2. ^ a b "German Think Tanks - Research and Science in Germany - Research Centres from A to Z". Goethe-Institut. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  3. ^ "IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor". socialcapitalgateway.org. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  4. ^ "Strategic Restructuring of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)" (PDF). Institute for the Study of Labor. 15 December 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  5. ^ a b Storbeck, Olaf. "Economists condemn move to close IZA think-tank". www.ft.com. Retrieved 20 January 2026.
  6. ^ "Strategic Shift at DPS: Implications for IZA". IZA Newsroom.
  7. ^ Dietmar Henning (26 January 2015). "German corporations call for new forms of workplace extension". World Socialist Website. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  8. ^ "Field Rankings at IDEAS: Labour Economics". repec.org. IDEAS. December 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  9. ^ "Rankings at IDEAS: Think Tanks". repec.org. IDEAS. December 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  10. ^ "Within Country and State Rankings at IDEAS: Germany". repec.org. IDEAS. December 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  11. ^ "Klaus F. Zimmermann". uni-bonn.de. Archived from the original on 3 February 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  12. ^ "Labor Markets - Partnerships". World Bank. Retrieved 3 February 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  13. ^ "DFID - Research for Development > IZA/DFID Growth and labour markets in low income countries (LICs) programme". Department for International Development. Archived from the original on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  14. ^ Olaf Siegert (27 November 2012). "EconStor Blog » Blog Archive » IZA launches 5 new Open Access Journals". econstor.eu. ZBW. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  15. ^ "IZA Journal Series merged into three high-quality journals". IZA Newsroom. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
  16. ^ "IZA Journals | IZA - Institute of Labor Economics". www.iza.org. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
  17. ^ "IZA World of Labor". The Jobs Knowledge Platform (Press release). Retrieved 2015-04-10.
  18. ^ "Professor Dan Hamermesh Wins Yet Another Prestigious Award - Economics home". royalholloway.ac.uk. Royal Holloway University of London. 19 July 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  19. ^ "News & Announcements:Congrats to Prof. Amalia Miller on her IZA Young Labor Economist Award". virginia.edu. University of Virginia. Retrieved 3 February 2015.


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