The Institut d'Economie Industrielle (IDEI), a research center in economics located in Toulouse within the University Toulouse 1, was founded in 1990 by Jean-Jacques Laffont. The IDEI serves a dual purpose:

• allow the University Toulouse 1 to be competitive at an international level;
• provide administrations and companies with an interface between their activities and economic research.

IDEI tackles both theoretical and applied economic problems and supplies state-of-the-art tools developed by economic research to decision-makers in eight areas:

• Industrial Organization, Regulation and Competition Policy
• Innovation and Intellectual Property
• Insurance, Banking and Finance
• Energy, Environment, Agriculture
• Macroeconomics, Growth and International Economics
• Economics of Developing Countries and in Transition Countries
• Methodology: Econometrics, Statistics and Economic Theory
• Public Economics, Health, Labour and Education

Research, application, conferences, training

IDEI develops four distinct activities:

1. Basic research: Thanks to progress in theoretical work, researchers at IDEI have developed formal models for analyzing, interpreting and understanding industrial structures and the behavior of economic agents.
2. Applied research: Researchers at IDEI have developed customized methodologies designed for decision assistance for companies based on their own specific data. In this kind of partnership the Institute's expertise is provided through technology exchange
3. Conferences and Seminars: IDEI offers an international forum for debates between theorists and practitioners focused on economic problems. Both groups are able to exchange and examine their ideas outside of the institutional framework.
4. Training: IDEI organizes training sessions for company managers in the areas necessary for mastering the mechanisms of economy and of finance.