2024 CREST Highlights


As 2024 draws to a close, CREST reflects on a year filled with groundbreaking research, prestigious awards, and impactful initiatives. Here’s a look back at our key achievements.

📊 Research Breakthroughs: 93 Articles Published

CREST published 93 articles so far, with 62% appearing in Q1 journals. These works reflect the breadth and depth of research conducted across CREST’s clusters. Here are some highlights:

Information Technology and Returns to Scale by Danial Lashkari, Arthur Bauer, and Jocely Boussard explores how technological advancements influence economies of scale, shedding light on contemporary production practices, in American Economic Review

Locus of Control and the Preference for Agency by Marco Caliendo, Deborah Cobb-Clark, Juliana Silva-Goncalves, and Arne Uhlendorff investigates how personal traits shape individuals’ economic decisions, providing a deeper understanding of agency in economic behavior, in European Economic Review.

Global Mobile Inventors by Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ernest Miguelez, and Sara Signorelli examines the migration patterns of innovative talent worldwide, offering new perspectives on innovation dynamics, in Journal of Development Economics.

Testing and Relaxing the Exclusion Restriction in the Control Function Approach by Xavier D’Haultfoeuille, Stefan Hordelein, and Yuya Sasaki provides advanced methodologies to enhance econometric analysis, in Journal of Econometrics.

Are Economists’ Preferences Psychologists’ Personality Traits? A Structural Approach by Tomas Jagelka bridges economics and psychology, exploring how personality traits influence economic preferences, in Journal of Political Economy.

Autoregressive Conditional Betas by Francisco Blasques, Christian Francq, and Sébastien Laurent provides innovative methods to measure financial risk, critical for investment strategies, in Journal of Econometrics.

Model-based vs. Agnostic Methods for the Prediction of Time-Varying Covariance Matrices by Jean-David Fermanian, Benjamin Poignard, and Panos Xidonas compares methodologies for improving financial predictions under uncertainty, in Annals of Operations Research.

Corporate Debt Value Under Transition Scenario Uncertainty by Theo Le Guedenal and Peter Tankov addresses the valuation of corporate debt amid environmental and regulatory changes, in Mathematical Finance.

Semiparametric Copula Models Applied to the Decomposition of Claim Amounts by Sébastien Farkas and Olivier Lopez develops new actuarial techniques to better understand insurance claims, in Scandinavian Actuarial Journal.

On the Chaotic Expansion for Counting Processes by Caroline Hillairet and Anthony Réveillac advances mathematical models with applications in finance and beyond, in Electronic Journal of Probability.

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Perceived Intergenerational Mobility in Europe by Alexi Gugushvili and Patrick Präg examines how geopolitical shocks affect societal perceptions and mobility, in British Journal of Sociology.

The Total Effect of Social Origins on Educational Attainment: Meta-analysis of Sibling Correlations From 18 Countries by Lewis R. Anderson, Patrick Präg, Evelina T. Akimova, and Christiaan Monden provides a meta-analysis of sibling correlations, offering fresh insights into education and inequality, in Demography.

Context Matters When Evacuating Large Cities: Shifting the Focus from Individual Characteristics to Location and Social Vulnerability by Samuel Rufat, Emeline Comby, Serge Lhomme, and Victor Santoni shifts the focus from individual characteristics to social vulnerabilities during urban evacuations, in Environmental Science and Policy.

Gender Equality for Whom? The Changing College Education Gradients of the Division of Paid Work and Housework Among US Couples, 1968-2019 by Léa Pessin explores shifting dynamics in gendered divisions of labor among U.S. couples over the decades, in Social Forces.

The Augmented Social Scientist: Using Sequential Transfer Learning to Annotate Millions of Texts with Human-Level Accuracy by Salomé Do, Etienne Ollion, and Rubing Shen highlights how AI tools can assist in large-scale sociological research with human-level accuracy, in Sociological Methods and Research.

Investigating Swimming Technical Skills by a Double Partition Clustering of Multivariate Functional Data Allowing for Dimension Selection, by Antoine Bouvet, Salima El Kolei, Matthieu Marbac, in Annals of Applied Statistics.

Full-model estimation for non-parametric multivariate finite mixture models, by Marie Du Roy de Chaumaray, Matthieu Marbac, in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series B: Statistical Methodology

Tail Inverse Regression: Dimension Reduction for Prediction of Extremes, by Anass Aghbalou, François Portier, Anne Sabourin, Chen Zhou, in Bernoulli.

Proxy-analysis of the genetics of cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease through polygenic scores, by Johann Faouzi, Manuela Tan, Fanny Casse, Suzanne Lesage, Christelle Tesson, Alexis Brice, Graziella Mangone, Louise-Laure Mariani, Hirotaka Iwaki, Olivier Colliot, Lasse Pihlstrom, Jean-Christophe Corvol, in NPJ Parkinson’s Disease.

Benign Overfitting and Adaptive Nonparametric Regression, by Julien Chhor, Suzanne Sigalla, Alexandre Tsybakov, in Probability Theory and Related Fields.

🎯 Discover more CREST publications on our HAL webpage.

🌍 Impactful Events and Conferences

CREST actively participated in and hosted events that fostered collaboration and knowledge exchange:

📅 Join future events: Visit our calendar.

2024 brought two new chairs at CREST:

  • Cyclomob by Marion Leroutier highlights research into sustainable urban mobility, funded through a regional chair.
  • Impact Investing Chair by Olivier-David Zerbib to maximize the positive impact of the investment on the environment and society.

🏆 Awards and Recognitions

📚 Books and Projects

This year, CREST researchers authored several impactful books:

2024 was also marked by the second series of the Beyond  the PhD series, a series of videos dedicated to the PhD course. In 2024, we were able to explore the evolution of the PhD definition through students currently in different years of their studies in all CREST research clusters.

📣 Media and Outreach

CREST researchers were featured in:

  • 80+ media outlets, including Le Monde, Le Nouvel Obs, Les Échos, University World News, BBC News Brazil, France Culture, Libération, Le Cercles des Économistes, Médiapart, AOC…
  • 30+ op-eds and articles, shaping public discourse.

🎙️ Featured Interview: Pauline Rossi discusses economic inequalities in Le Cercle des Économistes. Listen here.

CREST celebrates a year of remarkable achievements and meaningful contributions to research, society, and global conversations. From groundbreaking publications to prestigious awards and impactful events, our community has continued to push boundaries and inspire innovation.

Looking ahead to 2025, we remain committed to fostering interdisciplinary research, addressing societal challenges, and nurturing a collaborative environment for researchers and students.

2024 CREST Highlights


As 2024 draws to a close, CREST reflects on a year filled with groundbreaking research, prestigious awards, and impactful initiatives. Here’s a look back at our key achievements.

📊 Research Breakthroughs: 93 Articles Published

CREST published 93 articles so far, with 62% appearing in Q1 journals. These works reflect the breadth and depth of research conducted across CREST’s clusters. Here are some highlights:

Information Technology and Returns to Scale by Danial Lashkari, Arthur Bauer, and Jocely Boussard explores how technological advancements influence economies of scale, shedding light on contemporary production practices, in American Economic Review

Locus of Control and the Preference for Agency by Marco Caliendo, Deborah Cobb-Clark, Juliana Silva-Goncalves, and Arne Uhlendorff investigates how personal traits shape individuals’ economic decisions, providing a deeper understanding of agency in economic behavior, in European Economic Review.

Global Mobile Inventors by Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ernest Miguelez, and Sara Signorelli examines the migration patterns of innovative talent worldwide, offering new perspectives on innovation dynamics, in Journal of Development Economics.

Testing and Relaxing the Exclusion Restriction in the Control Function Approach by Xavier D’Haultfoeuille, Stefan Hordelein, and Yuya Sasaki provides advanced methodologies to enhance econometric analysis, in Journal of Econometrics.

Are Economists’ Preferences Psychologists’ Personality Traits? A Structural Approach by Tomas Jagelka bridges economics and psychology, exploring how personality traits influence economic preferences, in Journal of Political Economy.

Autoregressive Conditional Betas by Francisco Blasques, Christian Francq, and Sébastien Laurent provides innovative methods to measure financial risk, critical for investment strategies, in Journal of Econometrics.

Model-based vs. Agnostic Methods for the Prediction of Time-Varying Covariance Matrices by Jean-David Fermanian, Benjamin Poignard, and Panos Xidonas compares methodologies for improving financial predictions under uncertainty, in Annals of Operations Research.

Corporate Debt Value Under Transition Scenario Uncertainty by Theo Le Guedenal and Peter Tankov addresses the valuation of corporate debt amid environmental and regulatory changes, in Mathematical Finance.

Semiparametric Copula Models Applied to the Decomposition of Claim Amounts by Sébastien Farkas and Olivier Lopez develops new actuarial techniques to better understand insurance claims, in Scandinavian Actuarial Journal.

On the Chaotic Expansion for Counting Processes by Caroline Hillairet and Anthony Réveillac advances mathematical models with applications in finance and beyond, in Electronic Journal of Probability.

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Perceived Intergenerational Mobility in Europe by Alexi Gugushvili and Patrick Präg examines how geopolitical shocks affect societal perceptions and mobility, in British Journal of Sociology.

The Total Effect of Social Origins on Educational Attainment: Meta-analysis of Sibling Correlations From 18 Countries by Lewis R. Anderson, Patrick Präg, Evelina T. Akimova, and Christiaan Monden provides a meta-analysis of sibling correlations, offering fresh insights into education and inequality, in Demography.

Context Matters When Evacuating Large Cities: Shifting the Focus from Individual Characteristics to Location and Social Vulnerability by Samuel Rufat, Emeline Comby, Serge Lhomme, and Victor Santoni shifts the focus from individual characteristics to social vulnerabilities during urban evacuations, in Environmental Science and Policy.

Gender Equality for Whom? The Changing College Education Gradients of the Division of Paid Work and Housework Among US Couples, 1968-2019 by Léa Pessin explores shifting dynamics in gendered divisions of labor among U.S. couples over the decades, in Social Forces.

The Augmented Social Scientist: Using Sequential Transfer Learning to Annotate Millions of Texts with Human-Level Accuracy by Salomé Do, Etienne Ollion, and Rubing Shen highlights how AI tools can assist in large-scale sociological research with human-level accuracy, in Sociological Methods and Research.

Investigating Swimming Technical Skills by a Double Partition Clustering of Multivariate Functional Data Allowing for Dimension Selection, by Antoine Bouvet, Salima El Kolei, Matthieu Marbac, in Annals of Applied Statistics.

Full-model estimation for non-parametric multivariate finite mixture models, by Marie Du Roy de Chaumaray, Matthieu Marbac, in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series B: Statistical Methodology

Tail Inverse Regression: Dimension Reduction for Prediction of Extremes, by Anass Aghbalou, François Portier, Anne Sabourin, Chen Zhou, in Bernoulli.

Proxy-analysis of the genetics of cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease through polygenic scores, by Johann Faouzi, Manuela Tan, Fanny Casse, Suzanne Lesage, Christelle Tesson, Alexis Brice, Graziella Mangone, Louise-Laure Mariani, Hirotaka Iwaki, Olivier Colliot, Lasse Pihlstrom, Jean-Christophe Corvol, in NPJ Parkinson’s Disease.

Benign Overfitting and Adaptive Nonparametric Regression, by Julien Chhor, Suzanne Sigalla, Alexandre Tsybakov, in Probability Theory and Related Fields.

🎯 Discover more CREST publications on our HAL webpage.

🌍 Impactful Events and Conferences

CREST actively participated in and hosted events that fostered collaboration and knowledge exchange:

📅 Join future events: Visit our calendar.

2024 brought two new chairs at CREST:

  • Cyclomob by Marion Leroutier highlights research into sustainable urban mobility, funded through a regional chair.
  • Impact Investing Chair by Olivier-David Zerbib to maximize the positive impact of the investment on the environment and society.

🏆 Awards and Recognitions

📚 Books and Projects

This year, CREST researchers authored several impactful books:

2024 was also marked by the second series of the Beyond  the PhD series, a series of videos dedicated to the PhD course. In 2024, we were able to explore the evolution of the PhD definition through students currently in different years of their studies in all CREST research clusters.

📣 Media and Outreach

CREST researchers were featured in:

  • 80+ media outlets, including Le Monde, Le Nouvel Obs, Les Échos, University World News, BBC News Brazil, France Culture, Libération, Le Cercles des Économistes, Médiapart, AOC…
  • 30+ op-eds and articles, shaping public discourse.

🎙️ Featured Interview: Pauline Rossi discusses economic inequalities in Le Cercle des Économistes. Listen here.

CREST celebrates a year of remarkable achievements and meaningful contributions to research, society, and global conversations. From groundbreaking publications to prestigious awards and impactful events, our community has continued to push boundaries and inspire innovation.

Looking ahead to 2025, we remain committed to fostering interdisciplinary research, addressing societal challenges, and nurturing a collaborative environment for researchers and students.

Création d’un MOOC sur la finance durable avec Olivier-David Zerbib


Pour la première fois, l’Institut Louis Bachelier, l’Institut de la Finance Durable et le fond de dotation Horizon & Beyond s’associent dans la création d’un MOOC sur la finance durable.

Le MOOC de la finance durable répond à plusieurs problématiques actuelles, telles que les enjeux de financement de la transition en passant par les débats autour du Green Deal lors des récentes élections européennes. Il a pour vocation de couvrir l’ensemble de l’écosystème de la finance durable grâce à des présentations assurées par un panel d’intervenants de divers horizons. Ce cours s’adresse aussi bien aux étudiants qu’aux professionnels et décideurs politiques, afin de répondre à leurs attentes spécifiques.

Qu’est-ce que c’est ?

  • Un outil de formation en ligne gratuit et ouvert à tous avec l’ambition de devenir une référence sur le marché
  • Un projet élaboré à partir d’une base de connaissances fondée sur une approche scientifique
  • En partenariat avec Fondation Horizon & Beyond, l’Institut de Finance Durable, l’Institut Louis Bachelier, leurs membres et des représentants de masters spécialisés

Ce qu’il offre ?

  • Une référence au format média, indépendante, œcuménique et applicable
  • Un outil de référence pour la formation continue
  • Plusieurs niveaux d’expertise
  • Adapté à la formation initiale
  • Une composante de formation sur des sujets actuels et non stabilisés.

Quelques concepts clés que vous découvrirez dans ce MOOC !

  • Critères sociaux, environnementaux et de gouvernance
  • Double matérialité
  • Approches extra-financières
  • Taxonomie et réglementation
  • Produits financiers responsables

Création d’un MOOC sur la finance durable avec Olivier-David Zerbib


Pour la première fois, l’Institut Louis Bachelier, l’Institut de la Finance Durable et le fond de dotation Horizon & Beyond s’associent dans la création d’un MOOC sur la finance durable.

Le MOOC de la finance durable répond à plusieurs problématiques actuelles, telles que les enjeux de financement de la transition en passant par les débats autour du Green Deal lors des récentes élections européennes. Il a pour vocation de couvrir l’ensemble de l’écosystème de la finance durable grâce à des présentations assurées par un panel d’intervenants de divers horizons. Ce cours s’adresse aussi bien aux étudiants qu’aux professionnels et décideurs politiques, afin de répondre à leurs attentes spécifiques.

Qu’est-ce que c’est ?

  • Un outil de formation en ligne gratuit et ouvert à tous avec l’ambition de devenir une référence sur le marché
  • Un projet élaboré à partir d’une base de connaissances fondée sur une approche scientifique
  • En partenariat avec Fondation Horizon & Beyond, l’Institut de Finance Durable, l’Institut Louis Bachelier, leurs membres et des représentants de masters spécialisés

Ce qu’il offre ?

  • Une référence au format média, indépendante, œcuménique et applicable
  • Un outil de référence pour la formation continue
  • Plusieurs niveaux d’expertise
  • Adapté à la formation initiale
  • Une composante de formation sur des sujets actuels et non stabilisés.

Quelques concepts clés que vous découvrirez dans ce MOOC !

  • Critères sociaux, environnementaux et de gouvernance
  • Double matérialité
  • Approches extra-financières
  • Taxonomie et réglementation
  • Produits financiers responsables

Welcome Day at CREST – A Great Start to the New Academic Year


On October 10, 2024, CREST held its annual Welcome Day, an event dedicated to welcoming new members (research assistants, PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty members), offering them an introduction to the laboratory through presentations from the management team and thematic leaders.

This year, all CREST sites (CREST-ENSAE Paris, CREST-ENSAI, and CREST-Télécom Paris) gathered at the ENSAE Paris campus.

The presentations provided the new members with a comprehensive understanding of CREST’s institutional environment, particularly its affiliations with the Institut Polytechnique de Paris and the University of Rennes. Each newcomer also had the opportunity to introduce themselves and their research project, fostering exchanges with both new and existing members of CREST.

The thematic leaders highlighted well-being initiatives at CREST, as well as the structure of the doctoral program at IP Paris. The event also allowed the administrative team to outline their roles and share useful recommendations.

Our scientific data engineers demonstrated Onyxia, a solution recently deployed in collaboration with GENES.

Finally, CREST PhD students shared information about various reading groups, other lab initiatives, and teaching opportunities available during the doctoral program.

This event also marked the unveiling of CREST’s new institutional brochure for the academic year, which provides an overview of the lab’s research and teaching activities, as well as its prestigious achievements.

Welcome at CREST: Introducing our latest recruits.


Each year, CREST goes beyond its borders to find new minds to keep on offering pioneer research. This year, CREST was able to attract new talents from all around the world (Canada, France, Italy, Switzerland, UEA, UK and USA). These new recruits bring with them a wealth of knowledge, diverse experiences, and a passion for pushing the boundaries of their respective fields. New recruits is always very much appreciated by our PhD students and students from ENSAE Paris, ENSAI and École polytechnique, where they may teach as they arrive with a different background and knowledge base.

As CREST continues to produce groundbreaking research about and for society, the arrival of these scholars marks a significant milestone in our journey. Each professor brings unique expertise that will not only enhance our ongoing projects but also open new avenues for exploration and discovery.

In this article, we will introduce you to our new researchers, delve into their backgrounds, and share their specializations that will contribute to the vibrant research environment at CREST.

Economics

Laurent Bach, Visiting Professor (ESSEC)

Interests: Entrepreneurial Finance, Corporate Governance, Household Finance, Public Economics, Political Economy

Current position: Laurent is currently and Associate Professor of Finance at ESSEC Business School

Laurent completed is PhD from Paris School of Economics in 2010

https://sites.google.com/site/laurentbach/

Federico Di Pace, Associate Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Monetary Economics, macro-labor, international economics and applied econometrics

Previous position: Federico was previously a Senior Economist at the Bank of England.

Experienced Senior Economist with a demonstrated history of working in the academia and central banking, Federico conducted economic research with particular focus on labor markets and its interaction with monetary policy. He has conducted academic policy pieces using applied theory and time series econometrics. Federico completed his PhD in Economics at Birkbeck College, University of London.

https://sites.google.com/site/federicodipace/home?authuser=0

Yameng Fan, Assistant Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Macroeconomics of labor markets, political economy, market power and spatial economics.

Previous position: PhD in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

https://www.yamengfan.com/home

Florian Grosset, Assistant Professor (ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Development and environmental economics with interests in labor and firms

Previous position: PhD in Sustainable Development from Columbia University

The first strand of his research focuses on labor and networks in lower-income countries. His work explores how individuals’ labor supply decisions are influenced by their social network members, primarily with field experiments. The second strand of Florian’s research focuses on firms’ responses to environmental changes. It combines insights from the natural sciences with applied micro-economic tools for causal identification.

 https://www.fgrosset.com/

Marion Leroutier, Assistant Professor (ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Applied Environmental Economics focusing on two major environmental issues, ambient air pollution and climate change.

Previous position: Postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Marion’s research agenda has two angles. First, she investigates the societal cost of air pollution and the causal impact of climate and environmental policies, with an emphasis on health, productivity and distributional effects. In a second and more early-stage angle, Marion studies the determinants of support for green policies, in particular the role of social norms and identity.

 https://marionleroutier.github.io/

Bertille Picard, Assistant Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Econometrics, Machine Learning applied to policy evaluation and inequalities.

Previous position: PhD in Economics at Aix-Marseille School of Economics (AMSE)

https://bertillepicard.github.io/

Yuki Tamura, Assistant Professor (École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Micoeconomic Theory, Market Design, Social Choice and Political Economy.

Previous position: Postdoctoral Associate at the Center for Behavioral Institutional Design, NUY Abu Dhabi.

https://sites.google.com/view/yukitamura/home

Finance-Insurance

Roxana Dumitrescu, Associate Professor (ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Financial Mathematics, Stochastic Control, Stochastic Differential Games, Mean-field Games, Backward Stochastic Differential Equations, Energy Markets, Machine Learning.

Previous position: Associate Professor in Financial Mathematics at King’s College of London.

https://www.roxanadumitrescu.fr/

Sociology

Samuel Rufat, Assistant Professor (École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Urban Geography, Urban Studies, Spatial Analysis, Socio-Economic Inequalities, Segregation, Socio-Spatial Reconfigurations, Environmental justice, …

Previous position: Lecturer at CY Cergy Université Paris Cité (Géographie-cités)

https://geographie-cites.cnrs.fr/membres/samuel-rufat/

Hesu Yoon, Assistant Professor (ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Inequality, Poverty, and mobility, Community and Urban Sociology, Race, Gender and Class, Cultural Sociology, Social Psychology, Computational Social Science, Mixed Methods.

Previous position: PhD in Sociology at Stanford University.

Hesu’s research asks longstanding questions about spatial inequality in urban sociology: Why do some neighborhoods (or cities) grow by attracting people and capital while others do not? How does this place stratification intersect with racial and class-based inequalities? Combining experimental, computational, and qualitative approaches, she interrogates high-status consumers and place entrepreneurs – such as business owners, landlords, and travel writers – who have the power to mold physical, economic, and symbolic urban landscapes.

https://sites.google.com/stanford.edu/hesu-yoon/about

Statistics

Vincent Divol, Assistant Professor (ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Topics at the intersection of statistics and geometry, including statistical optimal transport, geometric inference and topological data analysis.

Previous position: Junior AI Fellow at Université PSL.

https://vincentdivol.github.io/

Marie-Pierre Etienne, Associate Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Development of statistical methods for ecology.

Previous position: Assistant Professor at Agrocampus Ouest.

Marie-Pierre is mainly interested in the use of stochastic processes to model and infer biological processes, particularly ecological processes.

Recently she focused mainly on movement ecology application and the development of statistical methods to extract knowledge from the study of animals, but also fishing vessels movement.

https://marieetienne.github.io/index.html

Sébastien Herbreteau, Assistant Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Statistical and Machine Learning Methods for image processing, inverse problems, optimization and mathematical understanding of neural networks.

Previous position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the Biomedical Imaging Group at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

https://sherbret.github.io/

Emmanuel Pilliat, Assistant Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Machine Learning and High-Dimensional Statistics.

Previous position: Postdoctoral Fellow at ENS Lyon.

https://epilliat.github.io/

Ludovic Stephan, Assistant Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Random graphs, inference problems, machine learning theory.

Previous position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the idePHICS lab at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

My research interests involve the rigorous study of statistical-physics inspired methods, from belief propagation to replica equations.

https://www.lstephan.fr/ 

Welcome at CREST: Introducing our latest recruits.


Each year, CREST goes beyond its borders to find new minds to keep on offering pioneer research. This year, CREST was able to attract new talents from all around the world (Canada, France, Italy, Switzerland, UEA, UK and USA). These new recruits bring with them a wealth of knowledge, diverse experiences, and a passion for pushing the boundaries of their respective fields. New recruits is always very much appreciated by our PhD students and students from ENSAE Paris, ENSAI and École polytechnique, where they may teach as they arrive with a different background and knowledge base.

As CREST continues to produce groundbreaking research about and for society, the arrival of these scholars marks a significant milestone in our journey. Each professor brings unique expertise that will not only enhance our ongoing projects but also open new avenues for exploration and discovery.

In this article, we will introduce you to our new researchers, delve into their backgrounds, and share their specializations that will contribute to the vibrant research environment at CREST.

Economics

Laurent Bach, Visiting Professor (ESSEC)

Interests: Entrepreneurial Finance, Corporate Governance, Household Finance, Public Economics, Political Economy

Current position: Laurent is currently and Associate Professor of Finance at ESSEC Business School

Laurent completed is PhD from Paris School of Economics in 2010

https://sites.google.com/site/laurentbach/

Federico Di Pace, Associate Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Monetary Economics, macro-labor, international economics and applied econometrics

Previous position: Federico was previously a Senior Economist at the Bank of England.

Experienced Senior Economist with a demonstrated history of working in the academia and central banking, Federico conducted economic research with particular focus on labor markets and its interaction with monetary policy. He has conducted academic policy pieces using applied theory and time series econometrics. Federico completed his PhD in Economics at Birkbeck College, University of London.

https://sites.google.com/site/federicodipace/home?authuser=0

Yameng Fan, Assistant Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Macroeconomics of labor markets, political economy, market power and spatial economics.

Previous position: PhD in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

https://www.yamengfan.com/home

Florian Grosset, Assistant Professor (ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Development and environmental economics with interests in labor and firms

Previous position: PhD in Sustainable Development from Columbia University

The first strand of his research focuses on labor and networks in lower-income countries. His work explores how individuals’ labor supply decisions are influenced by their social network members, primarily with field experiments. The second strand of Florian’s research focuses on firms’ responses to environmental changes. It combines insights from the natural sciences with applied micro-economic tools for causal identification.

 https://www.fgrosset.com/

Marion Leroutier, Assistant Professor (ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Applied Environmental Economics focusing on two major environmental issues, ambient air pollution and climate change.

Previous position: Postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Marion’s research agenda has two angles. First, she investigates the societal cost of air pollution and the causal impact of climate and environmental policies, with an emphasis on health, productivity and distributional effects. In a second and more early-stage angle, Marion studies the determinants of support for green policies, in particular the role of social norms and identity.

 https://marionleroutier.github.io/

Bertille Picard, Assistant Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Econometrics, Machine Learning applied to policy evaluation and inequalities.

Previous position: PhD in Economics at Aix-Marseille School of Economics (AMSE)

https://bertillepicard.github.io/

Yuki Tamura, Assistant Professor (École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Micoeconomic Theory, Market Design, Social Choice and Political Economy.

Previous position: Postdoctoral Associate at the Center for Behavioral Institutional Design, NUY Abu Dhabi.

https://sites.google.com/view/yukitamura/home

Finance-Insurance

Roxana Dumitrescu, Associate Professor (ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Financial Mathematics, Stochastic Control, Stochastic Differential Games, Mean-field Games, Backward Stochastic Differential Equations, Energy Markets, Machine Learning.

Previous position: Associate Professor in Financial Mathematics at King’s College of London.

https://www.roxanadumitrescu.fr/

Sociology

Samuel Rufat, Assistant Professor (École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Urban Geography, Urban Studies, Spatial Analysis, Socio-Economic Inequalities, Segregation, Socio-Spatial Reconfigurations, Environmental justice, …

Previous position: Lecturer at CY Cergy Université Paris Cité (Géographie-cités)

https://geographie-cites.cnrs.fr/membres/samuel-rufat/

Hesu Yoon, Assistant Professor (ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Inequality, Poverty, and mobility, Community and Urban Sociology, Race, Gender and Class, Cultural Sociology, Social Psychology, Computational Social Science, Mixed Methods.

Previous position: PhD in Sociology at Stanford University.

Hesu’s research asks longstanding questions about spatial inequality in urban sociology: Why do some neighborhoods (or cities) grow by attracting people and capital while others do not? How does this place stratification intersect with racial and class-based inequalities? Combining experimental, computational, and qualitative approaches, she interrogates high-status consumers and place entrepreneurs – such as business owners, landlords, and travel writers – who have the power to mold physical, economic, and symbolic urban landscapes.

https://sites.google.com/stanford.edu/hesu-yoon/about

Statistics

Vincent Divol, Assistant Professor (ENSAE Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris)

Interests: Topics at the intersection of statistics and geometry, including statistical optimal transport, geometric inference and topological data analysis.

Previous position: Junior AI Fellow at Université PSL.

https://vincentdivol.github.io/

Marie-Pierre Etienne, Associate Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Development of statistical methods for ecology.

Previous position: Assistant Professor at Agrocampus Ouest.

Marie-Pierre is mainly interested in the use of stochastic processes to model and infer biological processes, particularly ecological processes.

Recently she focused mainly on movement ecology application and the development of statistical methods to extract knowledge from the study of animals, but also fishing vessels movement.

https://marieetienne.github.io/index.html

Sébastien Herbreteau, Assistant Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Statistical and Machine Learning Methods for image processing, inverse problems, optimization and mathematical understanding of neural networks.

Previous position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the Biomedical Imaging Group at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

https://sherbret.github.io/

Emmanuel Pilliat, Assistant Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Machine Learning and High-Dimensional Statistics.

Previous position: Postdoctoral Fellow at ENS Lyon.

https://epilliat.github.io/

Ludovic Stephan, Assistant Professor (ENSAI)

Interests: Random graphs, inference problems, machine learning theory.

Previous position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the idePHICS lab at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

My research interests involve the rigorous study of statistical-physics inspired methods, from belief propagation to replica equations.

https://www.lstephan.fr/