Annual Report 2023 Highlights

The prominent Russian economist Sergei Guriev delivered our 2022 Global Economy Lecture, organised jointly with the Austrian National Bank (OeNB), explaining the political economy of Putin’s war in Ukraine and outlining its consequences for the world. Guriev is a professor of economics at the Institut d’études politiques in Paris (Sciences Po) and was previously rector of Moscow’s New Economic School, until he resigned in 2013 and emigrated to France.

Richard Grieveson, wiiw Deputy Director, and Christian Hanelt, Bertelsmann Stiftung's Senior Expert on Europe, EU Neighbourhood and the Middle East, presented our joint study on the EU’s geo-economic influence at the prestigious Munich Security Conference 2023.

The consequences for Europe of Russia’s war against Ukraine were the key issue at wiiw’s flagship 'Spring Seminar'. It also marked the 50th anniversary of our institute. Daria Kaleniuk, Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre in Kyiv, delivered a passionate keynote address on Ukraine’s future and its achievements in the fight against corruption.

wiiw celebrated its 50th anniversary with partner institutions from Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Representatives from institutes in Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine took part, presenting their work and engaging in intellectual exchange on the major challenges for the region. The crowning finale was a gala concert by the Silk Road Symphony Orchestra.

At our 2023 Global Economy Lecture, organised jointly with the Austrian National Bank (OeNB), Professor Carmen Reinhart, a top economist from Harvard Kennedy School, delivered the keynote speech entitled ‘China’s Overseas Lending: From Boom to Bust’. She presented astonishing results from a new database of 4,900 Chinese loans and grants to 146 countries – half of them unreported in the most widely used official debt statistics.

wiiw’s Russia expert Vasily Astrov, quoted in The Wall Street Journal on Russia’s economy: ‘The longer the war lasts, the more addicted the economy will become to military spending, raising the risk of stagnation or even outright crisis once the conflict is over.’

wiiw’s Scientific Director Robert Stehrer and Executive Director Mario Holzner participated in a conference that marked the conclusion of their DG GROW fellowship 2023 in Brussels. This was a unique occasion, bringing together the ten economic advisers of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (DG GROW) to discuss the EU’s industrial policy and single-market economic issues.

Foreign Affairs magazine recommended our study (produced jointly with Bertelsmann Stiftung) on the EU’s geo-economic influence in its neighbourhood as one of the best books of 2023: ‘In this uniquely detailed and indispensable study, a team of researchers systematically review the extraordinary extent to which Europe’s neighbors are economically dependent on the continent – and suggest ways Europe can optimize and defend its preeminence.’