CREST

What CREST does

CREST (Centre de recherche en économie et statistique, UMR 9194) is a French public research laboratory conducting quantitative research and graduate training across economics, statistics, finance, actuarial science, and sociology. The institution operates under the governance of GENES (Group of National Schools of Economics and Statistics) and is affiliated with Institut Polytechnique de Paris, ENSAE Paris, and ENSAI, with research sites in Palaiseau and Rennes. Its core academic products include a five-year doctoral program (PhD Track), the CREST Working Papers series, the peer-reviewed Annals of Economics and Statistics journal, and a research portfolio organized around four fields: Economics, Finance and Actuarial Science, Sociology, and Statistics, with strong methodological emphasis on econometrics, stochastic optimization, Bayesian computation, machine learning, computational social sciences, and policy evaluation.

The underlying research infrastructure relies on access to French administrative data through collaborations with INSEE and the Institut des Politiques Publiques (IPP), enabling policy-relevant empirical work including microsimulation via the Taxipp platform. Research output is disseminated through peer-reviewed publications (93 articles in 2024, with 62% in Q1 journals), top-tier ML venues (19 NeurIPS 2024 papers), and competitive grant funding from the European Research Council (six active projects), ANR, and institutional partners. The organization is event-driven, hosting seminars, workshops, conferences, and doctoral training events such as the PhD Workshop and Junior Finance Research Day.

CREST's business model is that of a publicly funded non-profit: revenue derives from institutional block funding (CNRS, GENES, IP Paris, ENSAE, ENSAI) and competitive research grants (ERC, ANR, Banque de France), with no commercial pricing of research outputs. Its primary constituents are PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty, with policy makers, government agencies, and financial institutions serving as downstream users of its research outputs and policy notes (notably via IPP).

Name

CREST

Legal name

CREST (Centre de recherche en économie et statistique)

Website

https://crest.science

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

CREST (UMR 9194) is a French public research laboratory conducting quantitative research and doctoral training in economics, statistics, finance, actuarial science, and sociology, affiliated with Institut Polytechnique de Paris, ENSAE Paris, ENSAI, and GENES.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Palaiseau

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Public Research Funding: CREST is a public research laboratory (UMR 9194) funded primarily through government sources including CNRS, ANR (French National Research Agency), and institutional support from Institut Polytechnique de Paris, ENSAE Paris, and GENES (Group of National Schools of Economics and Statistics).

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

CREST (Centre de recherche en économie et statistique, UMR 9194) is a French public research laboratory that conducts quantitative research in economics, statistics, finance, actuarial science, and sociology. It operates a five-year PhD program producing academic researchers, publishes research findings through its Working Papers series, and runs the peer-reviewed Annals of Economics and Statistics journal.

Product overview

CREST (Centre for Research in Economics and Statistics, UMR 9194) is a multidisciplinary research laboratory affiliated with Institut Polytechnique de Paris, ENSAE Paris, and ENSAI. It is not a commercial product company but rather an academic research institution that offers doctoral programs through its PhD Track, publishes research through CREST Working Papers and the Annals of Economics and Statistics journal, and facilitates research funding via ERC and ANR Grants. The laboratory conducts research across four main fields: Economics, Finance and Actuarial Science, Sociology, and Statistics.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Doctoral Studies (PhD Track) Five-year doctoral program offering training in top-level research for students aiming for international academic careers, covering economics, finance, statistics, and sociology disciplines.
• Annals of Economics and Statistics Peer-reviewed academic journal published by CREST, featuring research in economics and statistics.
• CREST Working Papers A publication series disseminating research findings from CREST researchers, covering topics in economics, finance, sociology, and statistics.

Quantifiable outcome

• 93 articles published in 2024 with 62% in Q1 journals
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Banque de FranceflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 November 2025A multidisciplinary research consortium led by Banque de France, including CREST, CIRED, and Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité. The goal is to develop new modeling tools integrating nature into economic models.
• FairOnChain ConsortiumflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 September 2024A blockchain research initiative focused on developing fair economic models. Hosted by Blockchain@X Research Center at CREST, with consortium meetings at École polytechnique.
• Institut Polytechnique de PariscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCREST is part of Institut Polytechnique de Paris, serving as the primary research laboratory for economics and statistics within the institution. This institutional relationship provides administrative support, academic framework, and integration with engineering and science departments.
• ENSAE PariscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCREST-ENSAE Paris is co-hosted at ENSAE Paris, with shared faculty, research resources, and academic programs. ENSAE is part of the GENES group of national schools.
• ENSAIcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCREST-ENSAI operates at the ENSAI campus in Rennes, providing research opportunities for ENSAI students and collaborating on shared research initiatives.
• INSEEcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCREST collaborates with INSEE (French National Institute of Statistics) on workshops and joint research projects, providing access to administrative data for policy evaluation.
• CNRScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCREST researchers hold CNRS positions and the laboratory is affiliated with CNRS, providing funding and institutional framework for fundamental research.
• Institut des Politiques Publiques (IPP)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerIPP is a policy research institute closely associated with CREST, producing public policy notes and analysis. Pierre Boyer serves as deputy director of IPP.
• Institut Louis BacheliercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborates on finance research prizes and the Annals of Economics and Statistics journal publication.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research): DIW Berlin is a German economic research institute combining academic publication, policy advice, and graduate training, with similar applied micro and labor economics strengths. Comparable in structure to CREST as a publicly funded research and graduate-training institution in continental Europe.
• INSEE (French National Institute of Statistics): INSEE is France's national statistics agency and a long-standing CREST collaborator with its own internal research and methodological groups. It is a direct peer in applied economic and statistical research, sharing data access, joint workshops, and overlap in econometric methodology development.
• Toulouse School of Economics (TSE): TSE is one of Europe's top economics research and doctoral training centers, with comparable focus on econometrics, finance, and applied microeconomics. It competes with CREST for ERC grants, French faculty, and international PhD candidates, and serves a similar role anchoring graduate economics in France.
• Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS): IFS is the UK's leading microeconomic research institute with a similar mix of academic publication, policy advice, and graduate placement. It is a direct international peer to CREST in research scope (labor, public economics, evaluation) and competes for European policy-research visibility.
• Paris School of Economics (PSE): PSE is a leading French economics research and graduate training center combining economics, statistics, and sociology. It is CREST's closest French counterpart in scope (multidisciplinary quantitative social science) and competes directly for the same PhD applicants, faculty hires, and French public research funding.
• Sciences Po (including OFCE): Sciences Po houses OFCE, a French economic research and forecasting center covering macroeconomics, labor, and social policy. It is a direct French peer to CREST in policy-relevant economic research and competes for similar policy-maker engagement and media visibility in France.
• Banque de France (Research Division): The Banque de France runs an in-house economics and financial stability research program that collaborates with and competes for talent alongside CREST. Both institutions produce policy-relevant research on financial markets, macroeconomics, and now nature-economy integration, and frequently co-author or co-fund projects.

Regional players

• OECD Economics Department: The OECD Economics Department produces influential cross-country economic analysis and policy research and shares methodological ground with CREST's macro/labor/public economics output. While geographically distinct (Paris-based international institution vs. French national lab), it is a comparable policy-research peer for talent and impact.

Broad incumbents

• CEPR (Centre for Economic Policy Research): CEPR is a pan-European network of economists that CREST faculty affiliates belong to. It functions as a coordinating layer for European economic research, conferences, and policy programs, and is an indirect peer in how it shapes the research ecosystem CREST operates within.
• National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER): NBER is the dominant U.S. network for economic research, convening leading academics across universities. While not a single-site lab like CREST, it is the global benchmark for research output and policy influence that CREST's Econ/Stats faculty implicitly competes against for placement, citations, and impact.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CREST