research
The new Institute for Political Economy and Governance established with collaboration of BSE
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the Barcelona School of Economics, and “la Caixa” Foundation, with the support of the Government of Catalonia, came together this week to establish the Institute for Political Economy and Governance (IPEG). The new research center will be housed at the Ciutadella Campus and aims to become a global reference for the analysis of the interactions between economics and politics.
IPEG researchers will use econometric and formal analytical tools such as game theory and quantitative methods to study the relationship between economics (development, the economic cycle, redistribution and welfare) and politics (preferences, institutions and political regimes). Their work will gradually integrate positive political theory into economic theory.
In addition to producing and distributing research with international impact, IPEG’s strategic objectives include fostering greater integration among various fields of the social sciences in Barcelona, particularly among political science, economics, sociology and history. IPEG therefore should strengthen the work of BSE scholars focused on these areas and contribute to build a larger academic community.
The IPEG Board includes the three promoting institutions and three prominent scholars: Prof. José María Maravall, former Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences at the Juan March Institute; Prof. Jordi Galí, Director of the Center for Research in International Economics (CREI) and BSE Research Professor; and Prof. Nico Krisch, Professor of International Law at the Hertie School of Governance (on leave) and ICREA Research Professor at IBEI.
During its first meeting, the Board entrusted the direction of IPEG to Prof. Carles Boix, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He will join IPEG this month and begin laying the foundation for the Institute’s long-term ambitions.
"The research conducted by IPEG must meet the highest international academic standards," Prof. Boix said in Barcelona last week. “Our goal is to become the center of reference in political economy outside the Anglo-Saxon world within the next 10 years.”
Within the next eight years, the Board envisions a team of some 12 IPEG researchers, a third of whom would be senior researchers.
About Prof. Carles Boix, Director of the Institute for Political Economy and Governance (IPEG)
Carles Boix (PhD in Political Science, Harvard University) is Robert Garrett Professor of Politics and Public Affairs in the Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University (United States). His research focuses on political economy and comparative politics. His books include Political Parties, Growth and Equality (Cambridge University Press, 1998), which won the William Riker Award for Best Book on Political Economy from the American Political Science Association in 1999; and Democracy and Redistribution (Cambridge University Press, 2003), which won the William Riker Award in 2004 and the Mattei Dogan Award for Best Book on Comparative Research that same year.
Professor Boix is co-editor of Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics (Oxford University Press, 2007). He has also been published in international journals such as American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, International Organization and World Politics, and he has also written several chapters in edited volumes.
He is Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2004-05). Before joining the Princeton faculty, he was Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago (1999-2006). In 1999 he received the Heinz Eulau Award for Best Article Published in American Political Science Review. He has been advisor to the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
IPEG Board Members
Scholars
- Prof. José María Maravall, Former Director, Center for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences at the Juan March Institute
- Prof. Jordi Galí, Director, CREI, Research Professor, BSE
- Prof. Nico Krisch, Hertie School of Governance (on leave), ICREA Research Professor, IBEI