What's IGIER
	Launched in 1990 as an original project by Bocconi University, the CEPR and the NBER, today IGIER provides a dynamic and international research environment in which residential Fellows and Affiliates, who are faculty members of Bocconi University, as well as distinguished visitors, conduct both applied and theoretical research in several areas of economics and publish in top journals.
IGIER Fellows include Fellows of the Econometric Society, past presidents of the European Economic Association, editors and members of the editorial boards of leading journals in Economics, recipients of competitive grands (e.g., by the European Research Council and the National Science Foundation), and winners of prestigious awards and fellowships, such as the Y. Jahnsson award by the European Economic Association or the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. Some IGIER Fellows are also consultants for international organizations, such as the IMF, the World Bank, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, and regular columnists in national and foreign newspapers. IGIER Fellows work side by side with a lively group of IGIER Affiliates, who are junior faculty of Bocconi University hired through the international academic job market.  In 2000, IGIER was awarded the Centre of Excellence status by the Italian Ministry of University and Research.
A Brief History
	In the winter of 1989 Richard Portes, Mario Monti, and Francesco Giavazzi agreed that the time was ripe for an attempt to bring back to Europe some of the young European economists who were building successful careers in America. They recognised that one of the main reasons behind the flight of young European economists was the absence of university research centres in Europe with "critical mass".
An early initiative in this direction had been the Castelgandolfo conferences, set up by Luigi Spaventa to provide a forum for discussing economic policy issues relevant not only to Italy, but also of more general interest; many young European economists presented papers there. The idea of an Italian research centre was discussed further with William Branson and Stanley Fischer at a seminar at Princeton organised by the Ford Foundation in the following spring. These meetings, and other informal discussions, provided further encouragment to proceed. In the summer of 1990 Bocconi University agreed to make local facilities available  and to award a start-up grant to support the project. An additonal grant to finance fellowships was received from the Commission of the European Communities under the auspices of its SPES programme. In the fall of 1990 the president of NBER, the director of CEPR and the rector of Bocconi signed a letter of agreement outlining the aims of the project and the responsibilities of the three institutions, dedicating a new institute to the memory of Innocenzo Gasparini, former rector of Bocconi University and responsible for sending young Italian economists abroad since the 1960s. The Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research was inaugurated on November 26, 1990.
IGIER Evaluation Report (January 26th, 2001) 10 Years of Research (PDF document)