In Memoriam of Franz Glinsner

"Franz Glinsner has always opened up innovative paths for Austrian economic research and will continue to provide guidance for the future at WIFO. The news of his death has deeply affected the Institute. On behalf of all our colleagues, we express our deepest sympathy to the family", the WIFO management said in a joint statement.

In 1955, while still a student, Franz Glinsner set off for the USA to familiarise himself with econometrics, which was in its infancy at the time, with Professor Gerhard Tintner, who also belonged to WIFO before 1938. Franz Glinsner was the first Austrian to deal with these burgeoning statistical methods and started his professional career at WIFO in 1957, thus opening the doors to in-depth quantitative economic analyses.

Initially, Glinsner worked at WIFO on agricultural and forestry issues, as well as mathematical-statistical, econometric and economic studies. In the 1970s, as a computer pioneer of Austrian social science, he began to develop national and international databases and the associated analysis software. The resulting tools for economic research were so attractive that they attracted international attention and were used by professors from the USA and Chinese research institutes.