On September 3, 2009, the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE) presented to F. M. Scherer, CBG professor emeritus, a plaque honoring “the important role he played in the founding and development of EARIE.”  The plaque was conferred at EARIE’s annual meeting, held this year in Ljubljana, Slovenia, by former EARIE president Dennis Mueller of the University of Vienna.

EARIE is an association comprising several hundred economists joining annually to present and critique research in the broad field of industrial economics, encompassing theories and evidence on market structure and economic performance in  both regulated and unregulated industries.  Its first meeting was held in Deidesheim, Germany, May 24-25, 1974.  The meeting was organized by Scherer and his colleague at the International Institute of Management in Berlin, Juergen Mueller.  Its genesis came from Scherer’s recognition on the basis of seminars presented in the various nations of western Europe that there were many economists working on industrial economics in those nations, but that they had no contact with one another.  Thus, a conference was convened to begin a cumulative process of mutual interaction.  The first conference was so successful that it was decided to repeat the effort yearly, to organize what became EARIE, and eventually to initiate a professional journal, The International Journal of Industrial Organization.  Conferences have been held at most of the major cities of western Europe.