OVERVIEW
The Institute for International and Development Economics is a web-based non-profit research institute. We are focused on the application of economic research to policy formation, with an emphasis on the global economy, economic (trade and financial) integration, and international development. We represent a network of research economists based in Europe and North America and working globally. Our activities support research workshops and seminars, database development, contract policy research, training in policy analysis, and dissemination of research results through our discussion paper series, links to policy blogs, and public dataset distribution.
publications & resources
IIDE publications include our discussion papers series and sponsored databases.
EVENTS
The 2009 European Trade Study Group (ETSG) meetings will be held in Rome on 10-12 September 2009. IIDE has been a sponsor of ETSG since it was founded in 1999. The ETSG has grown into the world's largest academic conference on international trade. The program included over 240 papers by trade economists, covering topics ranging from regionalism to the WTO, FDI, tax competition, and the impact of globalization of growth and income inequality. Last year's meeting was held in Warsaw. More information on this years meeting is available on the ETSG website: http://www.etsg.org.
people
The Institute represents a network of economists working on issues related to the process of globalization, development, and the relevance of economic policy to these processes. You can access information on IIDE fellows (home pages, discussion papers, etc) here.
NEWS and blogs
TRADE AND THE GREAT RECESSION: Recent trends in trade have invited a mix of consternation and hyperbole in the business and economics press and blogosphere alike. Discussion has ranged from worries about export credit shortfalls to resurgent import protection. The focus has been on finding the cause, and the assumption has been that the collapse in trade is unprecedented, inconsistent with the general level of economic downturn, and indicative of a trade-related set of problems calling for trade-specific solutions. There are indeed important public policy questions here. Is this recession being confounded by a set of trade-specific problems and issues? If so, how big, and should we be worried? This is subject of a recent blog by Joe Francois and Julia Woerz. (The Big Drop: Trade and the Great Recession.) The current state of debate among academics about the policy issues surrounding the WTO round, and related issues, can be found at the discussion on Trade on VoxEU.org. You may also want to follow issues on trade on the blog http://www.tradediversion.net/. Joseph Francois also runs a policy blog on related topics from the IIDE websie: The Random Economist Blog.
Carmen Fillat, Joe Francois, and Julia Woerz explore linkages between services trade and FDI patterns, finding evidence for both short-run and long-run complimentarity. 
IIDE fellows Hans de Kruijk and Martine Rutten have completed a set of papers based on detailed household survey data in the Maldives. These examine the factors underlying the movement of households into and out of poverty, and also the measurement of poverty based on priority weights assigned by the poor themselves. 
Medical migration is an important source of supply for doctors and nurses in the OECD. It also raises important public policy issues in the developing world. IIDE fellow Martine Rutten has recently completed a survey on the determinants and implications of medical migration flows.