Mission Statement

The Department of Socioeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration constitutes a web of associated and overlapping disciplines and fields, across which ideas, theories and methodologies are transmitted through the work of individuals and groups. The multidisciplinary nature of the Department is a real strength in terms of enhancing its ability to incorporate a wide variety of new ways of thinking about the world. Some of its methodology is highly quantitative and analytical while some is qualitative.

The Department has two interconnected missions. The first is to produce work of the highest scholarly quality on topics of interest to social scientists in general and economists in particular; to engage in frontier research, exploring the boundaries between the known and the unknown, to promote multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary economic and social research, and, thus, to work for the advancement of science.

The second mission is to enrich WU’s graduate and postgraduate study programmes through high-quality research based graduate and postgraduate education focusing on diverse subject areas of socioeconomics.

In general, the Department has a strong commitment to working across disciplinary boundaries, and to formal and informal research collaborations within WU, with academics elsewhere in Austria, and with academics and research centres in other member states of the European Union and beyond.