The Economic and Social Research Institute is Ireland’s independent source of evidence for policy. 

The ‘Economic Research Institute’, as it was then known, was established in 1960 by a group of senior academics and public servants, led by Dr T.K. Whitaker, who identified the need for independent research to support economic policymaking in Ireland, and persuaded the Ford Foundation to provide seed funding for its establishment.

Since then, the Institute has endeavoured to bring together the complementary expertise of its researchers to investigate the great social and economic challenges facing Irish society, and through its evidence has been a key contributor in the political and cultural dialogue around every major policy debate since its foundation. The latest 5-year research strategy, published in 2014, has set a course for the Institute which sees us expanding the research programme to investigate new topics such as behavioural economics, as well as broadening the existing research areas to better investigate the challenges facing a modern Ireland.

The ESRI produces research that contributes to understanding economic and social change in the new international context and that informs public policymaking and civil society in Ireland.

Since its establishment, ESRI researchers have leveraged their conceptual and empirical research in economics and sociology to provide analysis that helps inform economic and social policymaking in Ireland. Key features of the research are its strong empirical base, its policy focus and its coverage of many of the major areas of relevance to current policy issues in Ireland and the European Union.

The Institute’s principal output is knowledge that is disseminated widely in books, research papers, journal articles, reports, and public presentations. All knowledge output is quality assured through rigorous peer review processes.