Centre for Population, Poverty and Public Policy Studies

The Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) is a research centre located in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.

LISER is a Luxembourgish public research institute under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Its research focus lies in the field of social and economic policy including the spatial dimension. This comprises topics like poverty, inequality, education, social inclusion, employment, unemployment, health, housing, mobility, and regional convergence. The aim is to improve the understanding of causal relationships and to provide sound evidence for the impact of institutional settings and policy options on outcomes. Based on empirical evidence, the Institute wants to provide well-grounded and clear-cut answers to policy relevant questions. The results are published in form of research reports, monographs and scientific articles.

LISER has been integrated into a unified legal framework for the luxembourgish research institutes based on the law of 3 December 2014. It has an annual budget of approximately 18,5 million euro, of which 60% is allocated by the government, and 40% are coming from project related funding resources. Governmental funding is based on a multiannual performance contract.

Luxembourg and the Greater Region provide a unique and excellent laboratory for investigating social policy issues that are of key importance for the process of European integration. Substantial institutional differentials within a relatively small distance and their impact on cross-border activities like firm location, household mobility, monetary flows, and the like are generating an abundance of research topics, which are of relevance for a better understanding of the mechanisms of economic and social convergence or divergence.

The research activities are organised among three research departments and a transversal coordination unit. Their mission consists of producing relevant insights for social and economic policy based on empirical evidence. The department "Labor Market" is primarily addressing the process of labor income determination, both from the worker's perspective as well as from the perspective of companies and employers. The department "Living Conditions" is focussing on the social aspects of income and wealth distribution. The spatial dimension of social and economic policy is subject of the research agenda of the department "Urban Development and Mobility"..

The Institute employs 122 people, of whom 65 are researchers and PhD candidates. The research team is representing a high degree of interdisciplinarity and includes demographers, economists, geographers, legal experts, political scientists, psychologists, social scientists, and statisticians.

Domains of research: | Collective bargaining, trade unions, employers, collective agreements, dispute resolution, labour law | Employment policies, unemployment, European employment strategy, Europeanisation | Labour migrations, labour market, immigration, social cohesion, the Greater Region, Europe | Workers’ decisions in contexts of regional and international mobility: migration and cross-border employment | Labour force participation in particular of women and the impact of public childcare provision | Labour market performance in relationship with networks and health The matching of workers to firms and employment trajectories