The Ifo Institute foe Economic Research was founded in 1949 in Munich as a non-profit, independent research organisation and has the legal status of a reg-istered society. Since 2002 there is an institutional link to the University of Mu-nich that serves as the basis for a strong co-operation.

Since 1999, the Ifo Institute with about 150 staff members is structured in the following eight research and service divisions:

• Business Cycle Analyses and Financial Markets;
• Public Finance;
• Social Policy and Labour Markets;
• Human Capital and Structural Change (with Research Unit Construction and Real Estate);
• Industry Branch Research;
• Environment, Regions, Transportation;
• International Institutional Comparisons and
• Business Surveys.

The Ifo Institute for Economic Research examines short-term developments in the overall economy and in individual sectors as well as longer term tendencies and structural changes of the German and European economy. The institute regularly prepares short-term forecasts, medium-term business cycle outlooks and long-term growth scenarios, both for the economy as the whole and for in-dividual sectors and industries (e.g. construction industry with sub-sectors, types of work and categories of buildings).