The macroeconomic research at the Institute also dealt with various problems of confidence and credibility which government economic policy encounters in a world where private agents learn about policy responses, and also make forecasts about future policies on the basis of previous experiences of policies as well as announcements by governments about future policies. The research activity within this area has been devoted both to the pure theory of international trade and finance, and to empirical studies of trade patterns. For instance, considerable research effort has been devoted to the functioning of international markets for manufactured goods, raw materials, energy, food and foreign exchange, and to the consequences of protectionism, free trade zones and trade liberalization programs. The basic reason for emphasizing general economic theory and methodology is a strong belief that competence in general economic theory and method is a prerequisite for reaching, and staying at, the international research frontier. In addition to their research work, several members of the Institute are also actively engaged in the Swedish and international economic and economic policy debate in journals and mass media.
Several members work for various domestic government committees and international organizations.
During the seventies, the staff of the Institute consisted mainly of Ph.D. students and newly graduated Ph.D.s. Research at that time was largely financed by fellowship and research stipends. However, it has also been possible to establish a number of permanent research positions at the Institute which have been financed by the Institute's and the university's general budget. In particular, the Institute has recently created four tenured professor's chairs. One important consequence of this consolidation of the positions of the senior researchers at the Institute is that the staff is now able to take a greater responsibility for the teaching at the university, not only at the graduate but also at the undergraduate level.