Les couples de médecins rappellent régulièrement leur désarroi face à l’algorithme affectant les internes de médecine en France. La procédure actuelle ne leur permet pas d’obtenir des postes proches géographiquement. Pourtant, d’autres pays ont trouvé des solutions, rappelle Julien Combe, professeur à l’Ecole polytechnique.
March 8: Celebrating the Work of Women Researchers an PhD students at CREST
From climate economics to machine learning and public policy, women researchers and PhD students at CREST contribute every day to advancing knowledge and addressing major societal challenges.
Every year on March 8, International Women’s Rights Day highlights the achievements of women across society and offers an opportunity to reflect on progress toward gender equality. In academia, women researchers play a crucial role in advancing knowledge, even though they remain underrepresented in several disciplines and at senior levels.
At CREST, women researchers and PhD students contribute actively to research in economics, sociology, finance and statistics. Through their work, they help strengthen the laboratory’s international visibility while addressing some of the major economic and social challenges of our time.
Research shedding light on societal transformations
Many women researchers at CREST conduct research that directly informs debates on public policy and social change.
For example, Marion Leroutier has studied differences in carbon footprints between men and women. Her research shows that women emit on average around 26% less CO₂ than men, a gap largely explained by differences in consumption patterns, particularly in transportation and food. This work contributes to discussions on environmental policy and highlights how gendered behaviors can influence the distributional effects of climate policies.
Research conducted at CREST also addresses broader demographic and economic transformations. Studies on the decline in fertility in France and other developed countries, by Pauline Rossi in her recent book, examine the economic and social implications of demographic change, a topic that has become increasingly central to public debate.
Recognition of women researchers at CREST
The work of women researchers at CREST is regularly recognized by the international academic community.
In 2026, Yuki Tamura received the Young Female Researchers Award from the Japanese Economic Association, highlighting the growing international visibility of her research.
In statistics and machine learning, Anna Korba was awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant for her project OptInfinite, which aims to develop new optimization and machine learning methods in infinite-dimensional settings.
These distinctions illustrate the diversity and excellence of research conducted by women scientists at CREST across multiple disciplines.
Women contributing to economic policy and public debate
Women researchers at CREST are also actively involved in shaping economic debate and public policy.
For instance, Emmanuelle Taugourdeau and Pauline Rossi were recently appointed members of the Conseil d’analyse économique, an advisory body that provides economic expertise to the French government. Their work contributes to bringing rigorous economic analysis into policy discussions.
CREST researchers also regularly participate in public debates through media appearances and collaborations with institutions, helping to disseminate research findings beyond academia.
The role of doctoral researchers
Doctoral students are another essential component of the laboratory’s research ecosystem. Many PhD students at CREST contribute to innovative research projects in areas such as labor markets, inequality, discrimination, data science and financial economics.
In the 2025-2026 cohort, nearly half of the newly recruited PhD students are women (12 women and 15 men), reflecting CREST’s ability to attract talented young female researchers. This dynamic is an important aspect of the laboratory’s commitment to promoting diversity in academic careers, not only at the doctoral level but throughout all stages of recruitment.
Looking ahead
International Women’s Rights Day is both a moment to celebrate achievements and a reminder of the importance of continuing to promote diversity in research.
At CREST, the work of women researchers and doctoral students contributes every day to advancing knowledge and to improving our understanding of economic and social transformations.
On this March 8, we celebrate their contributions to the laboratory’s scientific life and to the broader academic community.
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Scientific excellence depends on the diversity of perspectives within the research community. Supporting the careers of women researchers and doctoral students is therefore not only a matter of equality, but also a key condition for the vitality and impact of research. At CREST, we are committed to fostering an academic environment where talent can thrive at every stage of the scientific career.
Find more highlights by women at CREST:
Entretien avec Annina Claesson : la place des réseaux sociaux dans le quotidien parlementaire
Ce mois-ci a paru l’article d’Annina Claesson:“Le prix de la visibilité”, dans la Revue Française de Sciences Politique. Cet article s’inscrit dans son travail de thèse Se rendre visible : la place des réseaux sociaux dans le quotidien parlementaire. Son article est disponible sur site de la plateforme CAIRN.
Yuki Tamura wins the 2026 Young Female Researcher Award from the Japanese Economic Association
In 2026, the Japanese Economic Association (JEA), awarded Yuki Tamura (CREST-École polytechnique) the JEA Award for Young Female Researchers sponsored by the Nippon Life Insurance Company.
Since 2024, Yuki Tamura is an Assistant Professor in Economics at CREST-École polytechnique. She obtained her PhD from the University of Rochester in 2021. Prior to her position at CREST, Yuki Tamura was a post-doctoral associate at NYU Abu Dhabi. Her research lies at the intersection of market design, social choice, game theory, and political economy. Her work focuses on resource allocation and reallocation problems under various preference structures, developing normative and strategic mechanisms that balance fairness and efficiency in assignments. In addition, her research extends to political economy and voting models, analyzing strategic behavior, polarization, and electoral competition. Overall, her work advances mechanism design theory by clarifying how institutional rules shape outcomes in matching, redistribution, and collective decision-making contexts.
The Japanese Economic Association (JEA) is the main professional organization for economists in Japan and brings together researchers working across all areas of economics, from theory to applied and empirical work. It provides an important platform for the presentation and discussion of new research, notably through its biannual conferences, which attract both Japanese and international scholars. The association also publishes the Japanese Economic Review, an internationally recognized academic journal. Through its conferences, publications, and academic network, the JEA plays a central role in supporting economic research and fostering collaboration within Japan and beyond.
Since 2020, the Japanese Economic Association established the JEA Award for Young Female Researchers sponsored by the Nippon Life Insurance Company to support young female researchers who are expected to become role models for the next generation. Each year, the prize is awarded to female researchers with outstanding research achievements within ten years of receiving their final degrees. In 2026, the award was conferred to Yuki Tamura for her significant contributions to the matching theory in the context of the exchange of indivisible goods. Yuki Tamura realized detailed theoretical analyses and characterizations of the Top Trading Cycle mechanism and its alternatives.
Find out more about the Japanese Economic Association.
Read the JEA communication about the 2026 award.
Cryptomonnaies : ce qu’il faut savoir avant d’investir
Malgré leur très grande volatilité et les risques d’arnaque, les cryptoactifs comme le bitcoin attirent de plus en plus d’épargnants.
Julien Prat, pour le journal Le Monde
09/02/2026
Intelligence artificielle et marché du travail : l’éclairage de Roland Rathelot lors d’un MeetUp Hi!PARIS
Lors du MeetUp organisé par Hi!Paris à Station F, Roland Rathelot, chercheur au CREST, professeur d’économie à l’ENSAE Paris et chercheur affilié à Hi!Paris, est intervenu pour présenter ses travaux sur l’impact de l’intelligence artificielle sur le fonctionnement du marché du travail.
Son intervention s’inscrivait dans une conférence intitulée “How is artificial intelligence transforming work, employment, skills, and productivity?”, réunissant chercheurs et acteurs économiques autour d’une question centrale : que change réellement l’IA, aujourd’hui, dans l’emploi et l’organisation du travail ?
Comprendre ce que l’IA fait concrètement au marché du travail
Plutôt que de se concentrer sur les discours prospectifs ou les scénarios de substitution massive du travail humain, Roland Rathelot a proposé une approche ancrée dans les données et l’analyse empirique. Ses travaux s’intéressent en particulier aux frictions informationnelles sur le marché du travail : ce qui empêche les entreprises et les travailleurs de se rencontrer efficacement, malgré l’abondance d’offres, de candidatures et d’informations disponibles.
Dans ce cadre, l’intelligence artificielle apparaît moins comme un facteur de destruction d’emplois que comme un outil susceptible d’améliorer la mise en relation entre l’offre et la demande de travail. En exploitant de très larges bases de données et des algorithmes de recommandation, ses recherches analysent dans quelle mesure l’IA peut aider à mieux orienter les candidats vers des postes correspondant réellement à leurs compétences, et inversement.
Le projet ERC INASHI comme fil conducteur
Cette intervention faisait directement écho au projet ERC INASHI, porté par Roland Rathelot, qui étudie les effets des innovations technologiques sur le marché du travail à partir de données massives et d’analyses rigoureuses. L’objectif est de mesurer précisément comment les outils numériques, et en particulier les systèmes de recommandation, modifient les comportements de recherche d’emploi, les décisions de recrutement et, à plus long terme, l’allocation du travail et la productivité.
En s’appuyant sur des résultats empiriques, ses travaux permettent de dépasser les oppositions entre “IA créatrice” ou “IA destructrice” d’emplois, pour mettre en lumière des mécanismes plus fins : réduction de certaines frictions, mais aussi risques de nouveaux biais ou d’effets d’exclusion si ces outils sont mal conçus ou mal utilisés.
Une contribution au débat public sur l’IA et l’emploi
Dans un contexte de transformations rapides liées à l’IA, l’intervention de Roland Rathelot a contribué à recentrer le débat sur des enjeux mesurables et observables, utiles tant pour les chercheurs que pour les décideurs publics et les acteurs économiques. Elle a également nourri les échanges avec d’autres intervenants issus du monde académique et de l’entreprise, autour des effets de l’IA sur la productivité, les compétences et les pratiques managériales.
L’intervention de Roland Rathelot est disponible en ligne :
L’IA est-elle un outil scientifique fiable pour les chercheurs ?
L’intelligence artificielle fait gagner un temps remarquable aux chercheurs. Mais elle s’accompagne de défis majeurs, sur la sécurité des données ou la fiabilité des résultats. Arnault Chatelain plaide pour la prudence et la formation, dans la chronique de « Polytechnique Insights ».
Du contrôle à l’incitation : l’évolution des politiques démographiques en Chine
Computational Social Sciences at CREST: Exploring Social Phenomena in the Digital Age
The Computational Social Sciences (CSS) group is built around researchers interested in understanding social phenomena through new data sources and computational methods.
Based within the Economics and Sociology Department of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, the group brings together scholars from various disciplines – sociology, economics, statistics, and computer science, in particular.
A Broad Research Agenda at the Intersection of Data and Society
The work of the CSS group covers a wide range of topics linked to the digital transformation of societies. Its members study how new technologies reshape social processes, how the growing availability of data influences everyday life, and how digital infrastructures are designed, maintained and used. At the same time, they develop and apply new methods in order to make the most of the current data abundance.
This dual focus, substantive social questions on the one hand, methodological innovations on the other, lies at the heart of the group’s approach.
Training, Seminars, and Scientific Activities
The CSS group is also deeply involved in training and scientific exchange. It organizes the seminar series “AI for Social Sciences”, which regularly host international speakers working on the uses of artificial intelligence and machine learning in social research. The team also contributes to the organization of the international summer school “The Summer Institutes in Computational Social Sciences (SICSS)”, helping to train students and researchers in computational methods.
In addition, the group regularly takes part in the organization of scientific conferences and offers opportunities for young researchers through PhD grants, internships and research assistant positions.
Information about these activities, as well as news and resources, is available on the CSS website.
Open Science: A New Set of Tutorials
An important part of the CSS mission is to make methods accessible to the wider research community. The group regularly publishes tutorials designed to help researchers work with new tools and data. They recently released a new set, and reorganized the page to facilitate discovery.
Their latest tutorial, “The General Inquirer in the Time of LLMs: a BERTopic tutorial”, focuses on a common task in social science research: identifying and structuring the main themes in a collection of documents. How can we understand what a corpus is about? How similar are the documents? Which topics are most central?
Using the BERTopic framework, the tutorial introduces the main principles of topic modeling and shows how these methods can be applied in a social science project, in the context of recent developments in large language models and text analysis.
The tutorial is available here.
Looking Ahead: a New Master’s Program in Computational Social Science
Starting in September 2025, the CSS group significantly contributes to a new Master’s Program in Computational Social Science at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris. Taught entirely in English, the program offers advanced courses in statistical and computational methods, with a strong emphasis on applied research and skills that are valuable both in academia and beyond.
Through its research, training activities and open resources, the CSS group aims to provide a space for reflection and experimentation on how social sciences can engage with the digital transformation of societies.
Econ Nobel Prize Lecture: Philippe Aghion at CREST and Institut Polytechnique de Paris
On January 12, 2026, CREST and the Department of Economics of Institut Polytechnique de Paris welcomed a large audience for its annual lecture devoted to the Nobel Prize in Economics, hosted at CREST-ENSAE Paris.
The event featured Philippe Aghion, one of the recipients of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics, together with Antonin Bergeaud, winner of the 2025 Best Young Economist Prize.
The lecture opened with remarks by Antonin Bergeaud, who offered a personal and insightful introduction to Philippe Aghion’s work. Using the language of Schumpeterian growth, he highlighted the breadth of Aghion’s research agenda and the remarkable influence it has had across fields, institutions, and generations of economists.
Philippe Aghion then took the floor for his lecture, The Economics of Creative Destruction. Returning to the foundations of the Aghion-Howitt model, he explained how long-run growth emerges from a steady process of innovation, in which new ideas and technologies continuously replace older ones. This framework, he argued, remains a powerful tool for understanding some of today’s most pressing economic questions.
Throughout the lecture, Aghion illustrated how the concept of creative destruction helps make sense of historical and contemporary challenges, from industrial take-off to periods of slow growth, as well as the difficulties faced by middle-income countries. A recurring theme was the role of competition: not only as a driver of innovation, but also as a condition for the diffusion of new technologies and the renewal of economic activity.
The discussion also addressed the tensions between innovation, market concentration, and inequality. Philippe Aghion stressed that innovation-led growth does not have to come at the expense of social cohesion, provided that the right policy framework is in place. In this respect, he argued that elements of the American and European models can be combined, rather than opposed, notably through education, labor market institutions, and competition policy.
In the final part of the lecture, Philippe Aghion turned to the economic implications of artificial intelligence. While acknoledging its considerable potential for productivity gains and new forms of job creation, he also emphasized the importance of competition and skills in ensuring that these benefits are broadly shared.
Conference replay
The full lecture is now available on the CREST YouTube channel.