L'X launches a new joint program with ENSAE Paris, and in co-operation with Telecom Paris: The Master of Science and Technology “Data and Economics for Public Policy”

At a time of heightened concern about economic development, labour, poverty, social equity, education, health and environment, École polytechnique, ENSAE Paris and Telecom Paris are joining forces to offer a unique public policy training drawing on their combined strengths in economics, econometrics and data science, as well as their unmatched experience in training elite engineers and civil servants for over two centuries. The program will welcome its first students in September 2023 and will entirely be taught in English.

Six years after launching the MSc&T Programs, École polytechnique graduated more than 400 students from all around the world. These international industry-oriented master's degrees – fully taught in English - equip students with the practical skills and initial work experience necessary to hit the ground running in industry with courses that offers in-depth scientific knowledge relevant to the student career interests.

This new MSc&T “Data and Economics for Public Policy” is designed to allow graduates to harness the power of data science and economic analysis for the framing, formulation and implementation of contemporary public policies. It is unique by its combination of strong technical skills and sound skills in economics as well as quantitative sociology.

Backed-up with Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris) interdisciplinary research centers, first and foremost the Center for Research in Economics and Statistics, the ambition of this MSc&T is to build on the historically close relations with leading institutions involved in public policy making and evaluation, to offer students the highly demanded skills needed to bring the best of academic knowledge to public decision making.

For Pierre Boyer, Professor at École polytechnique, and Franck Malherbet, Professor at ENSAE Paris, who will be this new Program’s Directors: “The evaluation of public policies is all about assessing the effectiveness of policies to inform decision-making. In an increasingly complex world, with interdependencies and limited resources, the evaluation of public policies is much more involved: It requires a deep understanding of sophisticated yet operational quantitative methods in economics and data science. This interdisciplinary knowledge is at the heart of our engineer school ecosystem.”