History of the Centre for International Economics

Founded in 1984 by Günther Nötzold, the annual conference ”Leipziger Weltwirtschaftsseminar” initially focused on the cooperation between East-German and West-German economies. Among the first Western scientists and experts joining these conferences during the 1980s were Kurt Biedenkopf, the later Prime Minister of Saxonia, and Meinhard Miegel. In 1987, the Centre for International Economics (Zentrum für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen, ZIW) was established as a centre for research and higher education at the University of Leipzig. In the very beginning of the transition period in winter of 1990/91, Kurt Biedenkopf was appointed guest professor at the ZIW.

In 1992, Meinhard Miegel was appointed director of ZIW. Under his leadership during 1993 and 1997, the ZIW was reorganized with a focus on transformation from central planned to market economy in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) and their convergence to EU. First joint research projects were lanced with partners from the University of Economics Prague and University of Wroclaw. In 1994, Meinhard Miegel founded the ZIW’s series “Transformation. Leipziger Beiträge zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft”.

In 1998, he was succeeded by Rolf Hasse who held at the same time the chair of economic policy at the University's faculty of economics. Rolf Hasse implemented as a new research topic economic upgrading, EU integration and the EU accession process of CEEC, including the EU institutional framework of this process. In 1999, he inaugurated the ZIW’s series of lectures about “Eastern Enlargement of the EU”. Under his guidance ZIW's cooperation with CEEC was broadened, new partnerships with University of Tartu and Willy-Brandt-Centre Wroclaw were started, and contacts to Institute for World Economics Budapest were renewed. In 2006, after the foundation of the Fraunhofer Centre for CEEC (Fraunhofer MOEZ), Rolf Hasse became its first director.

In April 2006, Thomas Lenk, professor of public finance and director of the Institute of Finance at the University's faculty of economics, took over leadership of the ZIW. Research topics were enhanced to include problems of tax comparison and harmonisation in the EU, social security systems, income distribution as well as bilateral and multilateral cooperation in EU Regional Policy. In 2007, Gunter Schnabl, professor of economic policy at the University's faculty of economics, and Rolf Hasse, acting director of the Fraunhofer MOEZ were nominated as ZIW’s vice directors underlining the close cooperation between the Fraunhofer MOEZ and the ZIW.