Research
The Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) aims to contribute to an economy where people flourish. We want to enrich scientifically rigorous and societally relevant economics research with other disciplines to better solve problems and identify opportunities in a real-world perspective.
Real world perspective
We are fascinated by economic mechanisms, and take a broad view on welfare and all factors involved. In line with our ambitions, we enrich economics in our research with other disciplines as this gives us a more balanced view of the economy and better insights for improvement. These combinations create a broader view on the world by including insights from law, geography, history, social sciences, data science, and so on. This approach is summarised in our ‘real-world perspective’: we are an economics department with a keen eye for solving problems and identifying opportunities in a context that extends beyond economics.
Four main research themes
Within our research programme Multidisciplinary Economics we focus on four main research themes:
- Future of Work
- Entrepreneurship
- Sustainable Finance
- Sustainability & Economic Development
We aim to create value through collaborative research projects, in line with the Utrecht University focus on multidisciplinary research. As a result, U.S.E. collaborates intensively with other departments within the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance and the university (History, Geography, Mathematics, Sustainable Development, and Social Sciences) as well as with other academic and societal partners (universities, research institutes, ministries, local governments, firms, multinationals, international organisations, etc.).
Organisation
The U.S.E. Research Institute works from a joint research programme Multidisciplinary economics. We are organised in four sections:
We accommodate three centres:
Our research links to three strategic research themes of Utrecht University:
U.S.E. researchers are involved in four research focus areas of Utrecht University:
Research results
Are you interested in the results of recent research at U.S.E.? Please have a look at a selection of our publications, visit our Seminar Series or read the Working Papers.