CERAS is the name of the Center of Education and Research in Socio-economic Analysis, a research unit of Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC).
It is
affiliated to CNRS (URA2036) since 1995.
19
permanent members, involed with CERAS for at least 50% of their research activities (11
research fellows, 1 secretary, 6 students, 1 postdoc) and 8 associate members (5 research
associates, 1 invited professor and 2 associate students), with highly diversified
profiles and status.
Located on the campus Jourdan and in rue des Saints-Pères.
History
CERAS has been created in 1982 by M.Deleau, R.Guesnerie and S.C.Kolm. It promotes
research in theoretical and applied economics, with a common concern about public
intervention broadly defined. CERAS chairmen have been S.C.Kolm (1982-1991), J.F.Thisse
(1991-1996) et B.Caillaud (1996-2002) and they made the lab evolve from the
engineer-economists tradition of public and political economy to a well-established
reputation in game contract - auction theory, in economic geography and
international macroeconomics.
Domains of research
Members of the team share a common methodology, based on a modelling approach. CERAS
priviledges high-quality academic publications in international scientific reviews. The
main domains of research are:
decision theory and game
theory, with an application to the analysis of market institutions and general
organizations;
microeconomic geography,
in particular the analysis of location of economic activities, local labor market and the
role of infrastructures ;
macroeconomics in
relation with economic geography, international and inter-regional trade, growth, and
international monetary economics.
Teaching and supervision
Members of CERAS are in charge of courses and thesis supervision within the doctoral
program of EHESS (Economic Analysis and
Policy, APE), and more broadly within the doctoral
school ETAPE. ENPC, as well as other graduate institutions (EHESS, ENS), deliver
thesis within this doctoral school lead by University of Paris 1. Furthermore, members of
CERAS teach and supervise various training periods in other « Grandes Ecoles », among
which ENPC, Ecole Polytechnique and ENSAE.
Scientific alliances
Along with other research centers such as DELTA and LEA, CERAS belong to a CNRS research
federation, the "Paris-Jourdan" federation, whose director is R.Guesnerie. In
this context, most of CERAS has moved to the Jourdan location. CERAS has also close
scientific links with IDEI in Toulouse, and with LEI (CREST) on its location at
Saints-Pères. The team participates in the Association for the Development of Research in
Economics and Statistics (Association ADRES, GDR 883 of CNRS).