The Institute for International Economic Policy (abbreviated as IIEP) is a research institution dedicated to the study of global economic governance, based in
Washington, DC
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
at the
Elliott School of International Affairs
The Elliott School of International Affairs (known as the Elliott School or ESIA) is the professional school of international relations, foreign policy, and international development of the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. It is ...
of the
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...
. Notable IIEP members include
Sabina Alkire
Sabina Alkire is an American academic and Anglican priest, who is the director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), an Economics, economic research centre within the Oxford ...
,
James Foster, and
Jeni Klugman
Jeni Klugman is a development economist. She is managing director of the Institute for Women, Peace and Security at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government'sbr>Women in Public Policy Programat Harvard University. Sh ...
. Partnerships with organizations like the
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Group ...
,
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...
,
Internet Society
The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American non-profit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. It has offices in Reston, Virginia, United States, and Geneva, Switzerland.
Organization
The Internet Society ...
, and
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US.
Founded in ...
have led to academic conferences and policy seminars.
History
IIEP was chartered by the George Washington University in July 2007. Its current director is Maggie X. Chen. Former directors include
Jay Shambaugh
Jay C. Shambaugh is an American economist who served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2023 to 2025.
Education
Shambaugh holds a BA from Yale University, a MA from the Flet ...
, formerly a member of President
Barack Obama's White House
Council of Economic Advisers
The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the president of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...
;
James Foster, co-creator of the Alkire-Foster method to measure multidimensional poverty;
Stephen C. Smith; and founding director Michael O. Moore.
Research
The Institute's mission is formally to serve "as a catalyst for high quality, multidisciplinary, and non-partisan research on policy issues surrounding economic globalization" Affiliated faculty have appointments in the departments of economics, history, geography, and political science as well as the law, public health, political management, and business schools of George Washington University.
IIEP produces research and policy analyses in areas of global economic governance, such as ultra-
poverty
Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...
,
, international trade, and US-China">international trade">öller, V., R. van Diemen, J.B.R. Matthews, C. Méndez, S. Semenov, J.S. Fuglestvedt, A. Reisinger ...
, international trade, and US-China relations. It is also the home of an International Trade and Investment Policy master's program.
IIEP serves as the institutional home of the Elliott School's International Trade and Investment Policy (ITIP)
program. It also supports the Elliott School's certificate program in International Economic Policy. IIEP works in close collaboration with other George Washington University research centers (such as the Center for International Business Education and Research)
and academic departments (see references below).
Publications by the IIEP include economic working papers, blog posts on development and finance topics, and an International Economics Study Center.
IIEP faculty members are also actively involved in the Ph.D. programs in disciplinary departments (such as economics,
created a new method for measuring multidimensional poverty. It includes identifying 'who is poor' by considering the range of deprivations they suffer, and aggregating that information to reflect societal poverty in a way that is robust and decomposable.
Contemporary methods of measuring poverty and wellbeing commonly generate a statistic for the percentage of the population who are poor, a head count (H). The Alkire Foster Method generates a headcount and also a unique class of poverty measures (Mα):
M0: An 'adjusted head count'. This reflects both the incidence (the percentage of the population who are poor) and intensity of poverty (the number of deprivations suffered by each household, A). It is calculated by multiplying the proportion of people who are poor by the percentage of dimensions in which they are deprived (M0 = H x A).
M1: This measure reflects the incidence, intensity and depth of poverty. The depth of poverty is the 'gap' (G) between poverty and the poverty line (M1 = H x A x G).
M2: This measures reflects the incidence, intensity, depth of poverty and inequality among the poor (the squared gap, S) (M2 = H x A x S).
M0 can be calculated with ordinal and cardinal data. Cardinal data are required to calculate M1 and M2.
The Alkire Foster Method is unique in that it can distinguish between, for example, a group of poor people who suffer only one deprivation on average and a group of poor people who suffer three deprivations on average at the same time.
This flexible approach can be employed in a variety of situations by choosing different dimensions (e.g. education), indicators (e.g. how many years of education a person has) and cutoffs (e.g. a person with fewer than five years of education is considered deprived).
Common Uses of the Alkire Foster Method
* Poverty measures. The Alkire Foster method can be used to create national, regional or international measures of poverty or wellbeing by incorporating dimensions and indicators that are tailored to the specific context.
* Targeting of services or conditional cash transfers. The Alkire Foster method can be used to target people who meet multiple criteria.
* Monitoring and evaluation. The Alkire Foster method can be used to monitor the effectiveness of programs over time.
In 2018, five women under the alias "Jane Doe" filed a lawsuit against George Washington University alleging that the university failed to protect student workers from a hostile working environment at the IIEP. Jane Does 1–5 alleged that staff and leadership at the Institute were aware of sexual violence being perpetrated by one student worker to multiple others and failed to act.