As one of the three founding fathers of International Economics and Economic Policy (IEEP) Jürgen Wolters took on a special responsibility for its successful launch. His international reputation and strong commitment to the journal have been crucial in establishing IEEP as one of the major and widely recognized journals in the field of international economics: in 2010 the number of institutions with electronic access to IEEP has exceeded 5,000. In addition to contributing articles, Jürgen Wolters’ outstanding support of the journal was instrumental in establishing a competitive and efficient editorial process that meets highest scientific standards. We very much appreciate the great commitment of Jürgen Wolters over so many years and are grateful that even after his retirement he will continue to support the editorial process of IEEP.

With Christian Pierdzioch a new colleague has assumed the joint responsibility for the editorial course from 2010 onwards, with a particular focus on empirically oriented papers. The journal will thus continue to provide a leading platform for evidence-based research focusing on the development and evaluation of the innovative policy strategies required to cope with the demanding challenges of reality.

We also welcome Christian Richter as a managing co-editor, with a particular focus on the field of fiscal policy analysis and economic policy, reflecting an institutional cooperation with the International Network for Economic Research (INFER).

In a period in which the transatlantic banking crisis and its aftermath have raised many new issues for academia and the policy community, we as always welcome fresh approaches to economic modeling as well as policy-oriented research that opens up new and challenges existing perspectives on key issues in international economics. We will also continue using fora presenting different views to stimulate discussion on specific topical policy issues. We, thus, hope that papers and ideas published in IEEP will continue to have a strong and sustained impact on the intellectual debate.

Hamburg, Wuppertal and Washington DC, February 2011

Christian Pierdzioch, Paul J.J. Welfens and Holger Wolf