Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST)
CREST's common culture is characterized by a strong attachment to quantitative methods, to the culture of data, to mathematical modeling, and to the constant back and forth between models and empirical facts in order to analyze concrete economic and social problems. This approach, which is perfectly in line with the DNA of CREST's parent institutions, is consistent with the scientific principles and objectives of the founding members of the Econometric Society:
Giving the society a rather distinct character, namely as an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation to statistics and mathematics… The main object of a society formed on this basis would be to promote studies that aim at a unification between the theoretical-quantitative and the empirical quantitative approach to economic problems and which are penetrated by a constructive and rigourous way of thinking similar to that which has come to dominate in the natural sciences.
The LabEx EcoDec is a laboratory of excellence in Economics and Decision Sciences associating ENSAE Paris, École Polytechnique and HEC Paris.
ENSAE and CREST are also winners of the "University Research School (EUR)" call for projects under the PIA (Plan d'investissements d'avenir) within IP Paris, in association with HEC Paris. The EUR Data Science for Economics, Finance and Management is a multidisciplinary project bringing together teams of economists, econometricians, quantitative sociologists, statisticians and specialists in quantitative finance, with the ambition of strengthening the impact and international attractiveness of research and Master's and PhD courses. The EURs are publicly funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) over 10 years and aim to
- strongly link, at the highest level, education and research by bringing together universities, schools and research organizations in a single dynamic of excellence
- enhance the thematic strengths of institutions and sites throughout the country, regardless of their size and the disciplines involved, by organizing the research and training strengths that constitute the signature of these institutions or sites
- contribute to the international influence and attractiveness of the country by building strategic international partnerships and attracting the best students.
This EUR is very structuring for the development of training in and through research at ENSAE-CREST within IP Paris over the next few years.
ENSAE Paris has set up numerous partnerships with companies to finance multi-year research programs whose purpose is to enrich public scientific research.
For the funders, the aim is to promote academic research in fields that concern them, to get closer to researchers and the latest advances in research, and to benefit from an image effect, a source of attractiveness in their talent recruitment operations. These research programs are built through chairs and research initiatives, which are distinguished from research contracts by their purpose: a contract refers to "proprietary" research in the sense that the results of the funded research are the property of the funder. In contrast, the results of chairs and research initiatives are public goods that are intended to be published in freely accessible scientific journals. This is the sine qua non condition for these programs to be considered as sponsorship.
The ENSAE-CREST chairs and research initiatives are supported by the Louis Bachelier Institute and its foundation (Fondation du Risque).
The dynamism of the research is supported by professors recruited according to the best international standards. Recognized in their fields, they publish their work and sit on the boards of the most demanding international academic journals in economics, statistics and machine learning, finance and quantitative sociology.