Introduction

SEO Economic Research was founded in 1949, as a research institute of the Faculty of Economics at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, to encourage applied research. Since the 1980s it has been legally independent from the university, while retaining close links with the academic community.

SEO Economic Research carries out contract research for ministries and public organizations, private companies and non-profit institutions, nationally and internationally. SEO Economic Research distinguishes itself from other research bureaus by its analytical approach. Modern economic analysis is applied to practical issues. Empirical questions are tackled with the econometrics toolkit.

SEO Economic Research clients are very diverse. SEO Economic Research is not linked to vested interests or political parties and research questions are approached with an independent scientific mindset.

SEO Economic Research is a medium-sized horizontal organisation. It has an academic staff of about 50, mostly economists or econometrists. When a research question has multiple dimensions SEO can call upon specialists from other disciplines – often from within the University of Amsterdam - such as the SCO-Kohnstamm Institute, the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) and the Institute for Information Law (IViR).

Since 1996, the quality of the services provided by SEO Economic Research has been ISO-9001 certified by SGS.