The Handelsblatt Research Institute
The Handelsblatt Research Institute (HRI) was founded in 2013 as an independent research Institute under the auspices of the Handelsblatt Publishing Group. Its nucleus is the Handelsblatt editorial department’s research section which has been operational for six decades.
As founding president, the institute was able to appoint one of Germany’s most eminent economists: Professor Bert Rürup, long-term chairman of the leading economic experts committee, which advises the government. The committee is frequently referred to as the “five wise men.” Long-term head of Handelsblatt’s research section, Dr. Jörg Lichter, is head of research.
Meanwhile, the team has been reinforced: economists with Ph.Ds joined HRI from university research institutes, as did former staff members of the Economist Intelligence Unit, analysts from big banks and other Handelsblatt journalists.
The team now comprises around 24 members – a mixture of economists, business management experts, historians, physicists, political scientists, librarians and information scientists.
In a very short time HRI has established itself in the market for commercial research. A series of personal appearances at the Federal Press Conference, a high media resonance in response to published studies and a list of clients from DAX companies and professional associations which reads like a “Who’s Who” of the German economy, are indications of its success. This success is based on a unique combination of scientific expertise, customised work and journalistic flair.
HRI Founding Team
We offer the best of three worlds
Our scientific work is as reliable as any performed by research institutes - but quicker. We zero in on clients’ needs – much like business consultants - and we present the results in such an effective and easily understandable way that they are of interest to both the media and the general public.
Apart from collating and researching information,checking facts has long been a second mainstay. For example, all the facts contained in Ludwig Erhard’s classic “Wohlstand für Alle” (prosperity for all), which he wrote in collaboration with the Handelsblatt journalist Wolfram Langer in 1958, were checked for accuracy by Handelsblatt’s documentary specialists.
The digitalisation of media saw the documentation section become the department for information and research. Electronic media archives and data banks replaced paper archives, and the section became the research service provider, supplying the Handelsblatt and WirtschaftsWoche editorial departments with facts and data.
By preparing key company figures, industrial data, financial market information and economic climate indicators, researchers do the initial work for lead stories, key topics and information graphics. And in 2013 it was this department, so rich in tradition, which formed the nucleus of the new Handelsblatt Research Institute.
That means: you can now benefit from its expertise and experience