CORE was founded in
Leuven in 1966 at the initiative of
Jacques Drèze, who is considered its founding father,
Anton Barten and Guy de Ghellinck. Initially, the center existed within the
Catholic University of Leuven. Following its split in 1968 to form the Dutch-speaking
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the French-speaking
Université catholique de Louvain, CORE moved to
Louvain-la-Neuve in 1977 to join the latter. CORE, the creation of which was inspired by the
Cowles Foundation as well as the other institutions that
Jacques Drèze had visited during his research work in the United States, brought economic modelling to Europe. Being a pioneer in the domain, CORE propelled Belgian and European economic research, which was very "local" at that time, into development. The center modernized it through the economic knowledge and research practices imported from the United States and contributed to its
internationalization, while at the same time creating a local economic culture in Europe, e.g., through
disequilibrium economics, which can be considered a French ‘trademark’ in
macroeconomics. Another element of the continental economic culture was the development of specific research forms, such as research teams, co-authorship and
peer review. In 1966, CORE opened its doors with four academic members and three researchers on the staff. For comparison, today the center hosts around 40
faculty members including
emeritus professors, 26
associate fellows and
research associates as well as over 40
doctoral and
postdoctoral researchers. In 1967, CORE received a five-year grant from the
Ford Foundation, which propelled the center into rapid development by attracting
faculty members and visitors. These researchers including
Gérard Debreu,
Truman Bewley, Hildegard Dierker,
Birgit Grodal,
David Schmeidler, Karl Vind and
Werner Hildenbrand gained CORE international recognition in the field of
mathematical economics. The time of the Ford grant coincided with the epoch of "Neo-Walrasian" economics at CORE, which also started the differentiation of disciplines. While initially, the research fields were integrated, at that time, there appeared the complementary, but independent disciplines of
mathematical economics,
operations research and
econometrics. After the division of the disciplines,
disequilibrium economics became the major and most influential research area at CORE differentiating the center from the US practices and establishing it as a specific school in
macroeconomics. By 1973, when the Ford grant ended, CORE had expanded its permanent
faculty to 21 members with about as many visitors. The maintenance of the center was taken over by the university, supported by external funding through various research contracts with the
Belgian government and different organizations. With the disciplines becoming more and more differentiated,
mathematical programming and
econometrics, initially minor fields, also developed and became important research areas at CORE. Thus,
Bayesian econometrics can be considered a trademark of the center, sometimes referred to as the "Belgian Bayesian School". In 1977, CORE expanded into training activities by the creation of the European Doctoral Program in Quantitative Economics, later joined by the other partners. In 1985, the
European Economic Association was created at the initiative of
Jacques Drèze (who became its first president), Jean Gabszewicz, Louis Phlips,
Jacques-François Thisse, and Jean Waelbroeck. Today, CORE's major research fields include
economics,
game theory,
operations research, quantitative and economic
geography. Its main objectives are fostering quality research, developing networking connections for scientific exchange and collaboration, training young
doctoral and
postdoctoral researchers as well making professionals in the
public and
private sector benefit from scientific knowledge. == People ==