General presentation of the CERGAM-CAE

The Centre d’Analyse Economique is a research group at the Faculté d’économie et de gestion at the Aix-Marseille Université, historically at the Department of Applied Economics of Paul Cézanne University. Founded in 1975 at the initiative of Professor Gérard BRAMOULLÉ who was the first director until 1984, the CAE has been successively directed by Professor Jean-Pierre CENTI (1984-2001) and Professor Pierre GARELLO (2001 – 2003). Since 2003, Professor Philippe MAITRE ensures the functions of Director. Since 2008, researchers at the CAE are integrated into a larger laboratory that brings together managers and economists, the CERGAM (EA 42235).

Since the founding of the CAE, the scientific target has been the analysis of the coordination of economic activities. The overall goal of the researches of the CAE is understanding how, in an economic system where decision making is largely decentralized, the activities of a considerable number of individuals are able to fit together and generate order.

Originally, the CAE’s researches were organized in two complementary axes, institutional analysis and the economics analysis of law. These founding themes gave rise to further research on topics related to economic theory (monetary theory, public choice theory…) and to applied economics (environmental economics, banking economics, media economics…). The list of research topics presents interests of current members of the CAE.

Since 1985, 87 dissertations have been defended, and 38 dissertations are currently in progress.