Laboratory of Excellence in Economics and Decision Sciences

ECODEC is a LabEx (for Laboratoires d’Excellence, that is to say, Research Departments of Excellence) dedicated to Economics and Decision Making Studies, merging researchers and teachers in economics and statistics of ENSAE Paris, and its research department, the CREST, of the Ecole Polytechnique, and of HEC Paris.ECODEC is aimed at promoting research work undertaken by researchers of participating entities, implementing high-level training programs (PhD, training for top-level civil servants…), building partnerships with private companies, especially in sectors such as marketing, data analysis, strategic management, HR, or corporate decision evaluation.

The LabEx Economics and Decision Sciences (ECODEC) focuses its efforts around a central theme “Regulating the Economy at the Service of Society”. The economists, finansists, decision scientists, management scientists, sociologists and statisticians taking part into this project work jointly to come up with solutions to address the questions of the present. The economy when left to its own course drifts away from the collective optimum. Hence, regulations derived from the best theoretical and empirical research using the most recent methods must be devised for society’s various stakeholders.

Institut des politiques publiques

The Institut des politiques publiques (IPP)  is developed through a scientific partnership between the Groupe des écoles nationales d’économie et de statistique (GENES) and the Paris School of Economics (PSE). The aim of the IPP is to promote quantitative analysis and evaluation of public policy using cutting edge research methods in economics.Research affiliates to the IPP and affiliated PhD students are researchers from CREST and from PSE, researchers belonging to other research institutions and a permanent team dedicated to the IPP. Their work relates to themes covering a wide spectrum of public policy: tax and benefit systems, employment policies, education, health, firms, pensions, democracy and institutions, environment, housing and competition policies.The research carried out by the IPP aims both to develop scientific research in the field of public policies and to inform the public debate. To do so, the IPP publishes its research in different formats, some aimed at academics (working papers and peer-reviewed journals) and some aimed at a wider audience (notes and reports). In addition to this, the IPP develops on-line tools to enable a larger number of people to become acquainted with public policy issues, notably the IPP tax and benefit tables.

The IPP is supported by a French government subsidy managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche under the framework of the Investissements d’avenir programme.

Institut Polytechnique Experimental Lab

The IPEL  is a laboratory for research in experimental economics at CREST. It focuses on topics in behavioral economics and behavioral finance.The observation of naturally occurring events does not allow a careful isolation of the relevant factors that affect those events, nor to measure precisely their relative importance. Furthermore, some situations are hardly observable, either because they correspond to very rare events in space and time, or because they require a particular combination of factors. Finally, some economic situations cannot be observed without the practical implementation of some policy instrument. Experimental tools have been developed by economists, in order to overcome some of the difficulties of observing naturally occurring events. In a typical experiment, an artificial environment is created, reflecting either the conditions described by economic theory or some hypothetical situation. Therefore economic experiments can be designed to address three types of issues:

• – theory testing, by providing relevant data,
• – decision aid, by evaluating the impact of various instruments (e.g. a public policy or a firm strategy), without exposing the individuals or groups concerned by those instruments to the potential costs or risks of a real in-situ implementation,
• – provide new insights and knowledge about situations for which theory is lacking or incomplete.

The IPEL provides an experimental platform to serve as an inspiration for novel research agendas and to advance understanding of human judgment and decision making. Research by faculty members has focused in particular, but not exclusively, on ethical, rationality, and competition aspects. The experimental method also lends itself to interdisciplinary work between economists and, among others, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, biologists, and mathematicians. We also tend to develop our research interest around behavioral economics using novel techniques from neuro and cognitive sciences to capture information during the decision making process.