The general research goal is the analysis of economic problems related to food, agriculture, and issues of rural areas, with an emphasis on policy issues. More specifically, the main research focus is on the development of the agricultural and rural sectors in both Hungarian and other Central and East European countries, with special emphasis on changes caused by transition and the EU enlargement. The field can be divided into five subfields: (a) studies in international agricultural trade, employing the new theoretical and empirical developments. The focus is mainly on the agricultural trade of the European Union. (b) Vertical co-ordination in agri-food sectors, dealing with the horizontal and vertical cooperation within various agricultural chains in Hungary. (c) The analysis of agricultural prices and markets, addressing the question of how the European integration process in Hungary has affected agricultural price transmission. (d) The influence of macroeconomic variables on the agriculture in transition countries, investigating the impacts of monetary policy variables on agricultural prices and food prices in transition countries employing modern time series approaches, and (e) rural development, analysing the EU "LEADER" Programme and the concept of integrated rural development.

The main aim is to conduct regular analysis of the characteristic features of the process of globalization and its impact on economic development in Europe and in Hungary. The intention is to offer relevant research results for better orientation of researchers, politicians, and decision-makers in general. A further research objective is to analyse critical issues of the EU-integration process, as well as identify opportunities offered by the EU for Hungary. Investigation of the development process in less developed, mostly former centrally planned economies is a further field of interest. Based on comparative research, the question is addressed how structural transformations can be carried out, possibly without vast social and economic shocks, with the prospects of a fast catching up with the developed nations.

Ongoing and planned projects endeavour to investigate the interaction of public services and finance, public policies and markets, the role of government levels, the relationship of social partners, relying on fiscal federalism, new economic geography, industrial relations, bargaining theories and median-voter theorem, among others.

The aim is to pursue research on the link between macroeconomics and economic development. These approaches rely on microeconomic foundation and it is assumed that the agents are heterogenous. The relation of macropolicies - monetary, fiscal, etc. - to other policies, like research, development and innovation is also investigated.

Labour research basically addresses evolutions in the Hungarian and Central-East European labor markets, but it extends to issues in education research, informal economy, pension systems and regional inequalities. Though to a lesser extent, the research program covers theoretical and micro-econometric issues as well. Applied research is embodied in the evaluation of Hungarian employment policies, and in expert work for both Hungarian and international organizations. Dissemination of results is served by the thematic working paper series published by the Institute, as well as the yearbook The Hungarian Labor Market, first published in 2000. In strong connection with the field is the development of the data bank of IEHAS comprising of harmonized waves of regular surveys.

The general objective is the integration of different directions of research that might make a significant contribution to the reform of the secondary and higher education in Hungary into a common framework. The area of research includes new and innovative approaches in the field of the theory and economy of education, utilizing large sample databases made in recent years and also being under development. The results are supposed to support policy-making directed to the modernization of the Hungarian education system.

Considering the organization and patterns of markets and industries as the starting point for the analysis of economy, the main focus in this field is on the activities of two players: the firms and the state formulating industrial and public policy. The aim is to reveal the underlying causes of changes in corporate governance, corporate finance, firm size (including mergers), boundaries of the firms (innovation, internal production, outsourcing). Interfirm relations may be deeply influenced by public policies which we analyze in detail in every case. The studies are both theoretical and empirical, and are based on rigorous collection and examination of economic facts.

IEHAS conducts basic and applied, as well as interdisciplinary research on many further areas of economics and the related fields, such as the history of economic thought, etc.