01.10.2026

Elisabeth Christen Becomes WIFO Deputy Director

Responsible for Research – Rotation as of 1 October 2026

Trade economist Elisabeth Christen became Deputy Director of WIFO on 1 October 2026 and will coordinate the research activities of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research. She succeeds Michael Peneder, who is handing over his position on the management board after four years as part of the regular rotation and will again devote more of his time to his scientific work. With this change, the Institute's four-member management board has an equal gender representation for the first time, with two women and two men.

"Having worked at WIFO for more than a decade, Elisabeth Christen knows the Institute's research inside out. She is a highly respected economist and will enrich the management board with her experience and expertise. I would like to thank Michael Peneder for his extraordinary commitment to the Institute", said WIFO Director Gabriel Felbermayr.

Born in Vienna, Elisabeth Christen (41 years old) is a Senior Economist at WIFO and has been working in the WIFO Research Group "Industrial, Innovation and International Economics" since 2013. Before joining WIFO, she worked at the Universities of Linz and Innsbruck. She holds a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Linz (2008) and a joint PhD degree in International Economics from the Universities of Linz and Innsbruck (2013). Her research focuses on the empirical analysis of international trade issues and trade policy. Her recent work has concentrated on the impact of geo-economic factors, such as the erratic US tariff policy and the EU’s new trade policy instruments, on foreign trade and economic policy. She also examines trade dependencies and strategies for strengthening economic resilience.

Christen is involved in or leads several national and international research projects and has taught applied International Economics at several Austrian universities. She is also a member of the Scientific Commission of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Defence and of the Advisory Board on Foreign Trade Statistics at Statistics Austria. In addition, she is an expert and a member of the organising team at the Research Centre International Economics (FIW), which provides economic policy advice and analysis on a wide range of current issues in International Economics. Her publications include articles in international journals such as the Review of International Economics and The World Economy, as well as a chapter in the Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling.

Together with Director Gabriel Felbermayr and the deputy directors Alexander Loidl (Finance) and Christine Mayrhuber (External Relations), Elisabeth Christen (Research) completes the four-member management board of the Institute.