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By 1933, the magnitude of the Great Depression suggested the need for a research organization to inquire into the wide range of economic, social, and monetary developments that had contributed to the catastrophic economic contraction. The hope was that by further developing and applying modern scientific procedures of inquiry, results could be obtained that would be useful to the Nation in avoiding a repetition of the disaster. On the advice of Dr. Vannevar Bush, then vice-president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Col. E. C. Harwood founded the American Institute for Economic Research to conduct the necessary research.

Initially AIER was housed in the office of a staff member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but soon expansion required more space. For several years the Institute occupied buildings in Cambridge, Massachusetts that it also soon outgrew.

At the end of the Second World War, Col. E. C. Harwood and Helen Harwood investigated the potential of several "white elephants" in Berkshire County, Massachusetts as a new home for AIER. After successful negotiations, they moved operations to Great Barrington. After several month of preparing the new location, AIER resumed full operation at its new location with plenty of room for future expansion.

And expand it did. By 1956 subscription and booklet sales had outgrown its allotted space. In 1957, the mailing and printing were transferred to an annex. In 1958, a warehouse was added to the annex to accommodate increasing volumes of paper, envelopes, and mail.

To accommodate the expansion of research staff, students, and books, in 1962 a research library was added to the hillside below the annex. Now known as the E. C. Harwood Library, the 10,000 square-foot building contains AIER's principal offices.

In 1993, a comprehensive renovation was undertaken to accommodate the demands of the "computer age." With the installation of new hardware and software, AIER's computerized research facilities now employ "state of the art" information technology, including on-line access to most major libraries in the United States.

AIER's independence from special-interest groups - and its close attention not only to proposed solutions of fundamental economic problems but also to useful procedures of inquiry into those problems - makes AIER unique among economic research organizations. AIER's long-run success attests the need for economic research carried out in such a manner. With all the problems our Nation currently faces as we come to the turn of the century, AIER's research is as important know as ever.