What does good social policy cost? Professor Marek Kośny reappointed to the IPiSS Scientific Council

Before the state launches a new benefit or reshapes social assistance, someone has to work out what it will cost and who will receive the money. Professor Marek Kośny, Vice-Rector for Research at Wrocław University of Economics and Business, has been doing exactly that for years.

On 28 October in Warsaw he received his appointment to the Scientific Council of the Institute of Labour and Social Studies (IPiSS) for 2026-2030. It is his second consecutive term.

The institute that calculates the minimum

IPiSS has operated since 1972 under the supervision of the minister responsible for labour. It studies the labour market, wages and social security. It produces Poland’s estimates of the social minimum and the subsistence minimum, and for half a century it has published the journal Polityka Społeczna (Social Policy).

Who decides what the Institute counts

The social minimum does not come out of thin air. Before IPiSS researchers start their calculations, someone has to decide what the Institute will work on in the years ahead, and the Scientific Council has a big say in that. It approves research directions and gives its

opinion on research plans and on the financial plan, which determines where the money goes. It also adopts the statute, evaluates the work of research staff and reviews candidates for senior posts.

The Council can also change the rules the Institute itself works by. In March 2025, with Professor Kośny already a member, it adopted amendments to the statute, which the minister approved in June. The new term brings an extra task: according to the Ministry, the Council will prepare recommendations to support public decision-making. Alongside steering the Institute’s research, it will advise the state.

Fourteen people sit on the Council: IPiSS researchers and academics from universities across Poland. Wrocław University of Economics and Business has one representative among them, Professor Kośny.

Counting the cost of reform

At WUEB, Professor Kośny heads the Department of Econometrics and Operations Research. His research covers income distribution, inequality, poverty and household economic security. His links with the Institute go beyond the Council. In the IPiSS monograph on Social Services Centres, which traces a presidential legislative initiative from first concept to implementation, he wrote the chapter estimating the cost of setting up and running these centres.

He brings the same questions to expert analyses for the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, the ministry responsible for family and social policy, and the Polish Economic Institute. For the latter he estimated, among other things, the scale of cash-in-hand wage payments in Poland.

Between research and the state

Since 2021 he has chaired the Scientific Council of the Polish Economic Society. On the Statistics Council to the Prime Minister, which helps shape Poland’s official statistics programme, he represents the Large Families Association “Three Plus”. He also leads the association’s expert team. Since December 2025 he has sat on the Family and Demography Council to the President of the Republic of Poland.

A second term, a new title

During the 2022-2026 term Professor Kośny sat on the Council as an associate professor at WUEB. In that period he was awarded the title of Professor of Social Sciences in Economics and Finance: conferred in June 2024, with the formal nomination presented on 23 April 2025. He returns to the Council holding Poland’s highest academic title.

WUEB research where decisions are made

An economics university can shape public life in many ways. One of the most durable is to have its researchers help set the agenda of the institutions on whose evidence social policy relies, and to bring verifiable data to that table. Professor Kośny’s work on the IPiSS Scientific Council is one such route. See Professor Marek Kośny’s profile in the WUEB Expert Database: badania.uew.pl/en/?p=46152. Journalists and institutions seeking comment on incomes, inequality or family policy are welcome to get in touch through the profile.

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Prof. dr hab. Marek Kośny

Expert in the field of: Socio-economic Policy, New Technologies and Innovation

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Author of text: Justyna Morawska-Płoskonka