The Research Institute of Applied Economics (IREA) was founded in 2005, forms part of the Barcelona Science Park and employs 60 researchers as members of three separate groups working in the field of Applied Economics. The groups, AQR, RISC and PPRE are recognized by the Generalitat of Catalonia as consolidated research groups; the third group, is provisionally consolidated as GiM.

1. Regional Quantitative Analysis Research Group (AQR), Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Spanish Economy.

2.Government and Market Research Group (GiM),
Department of Economic Policy.

3. Risk in Finance and Insurance Research Group (RISK), Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Spanish Economy.

The members of IREA have substantial research experience in the following areas:

a. The quantitative analysis of regional and urban economic activity and the
analysis of regional and local policies.

b. The analysis of public economic activity in the market, with special attention to empirical evaluation of privatization, competence and regulation of public services markets using techniques applied in industrial economy.

c. The analysis of risk in insurance and finance.

d. Development of micro- and macro-econometric techniques for the analysis of economic activity, with special attention to the quantitative evaluation of public policies.