Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI)

Their core work

CREI is a Barcelona-based economics research centre specializing in macroeconomics, international trade, and monetary policy. Their researchers develop theoretical and empirical models to understand how monetary and fiscal policies affect inequality, business cycles, and economic growth. They produce rigorous academic work on topics directly relevant to central banks, finance ministries, and international economic institutions — from how heterogeneous households respond to interest rate changes to how transport networks shape the geography of trade.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their earlier H2020 period (2016–2018), CREI focused on foundational macroeconomic questions: asset pricing under heterogeneous beliefs, inequality, and the political consequences of globalization. From 2019 onward, their research expanded into more applied and spatially-aware economics — optimal transport networks, productivity-driven growth models, and information frictions in credit markets. The trend shows a shift from abstract macro theory toward models with richer real-world structure: networks, geography, firm heterogeneity, and information imperfections.

CREI is moving toward macroeconomic models that incorporate spatial networks, firm-level heterogeneity, and information frictions — making their work increasingly relevant to policy design and urban planning.

How they like to work

CREI operates exclusively as a project coordinator with zero consortium partners across all seven H2020 projects, meaning every grant is a solo ERC award held by an individual principal investigator. This is characteristic of a top-tier academic research centre where senior economists win personal ERC grants. Potential collaborators should expect to engage through academic channels (visiting positions, co-authorship, workshops) rather than through formal EU consortium partnerships.

CREI has no formal consortium network in H2020 — all seven projects are single-beneficiary ERC grants with no registered partners. Their real collaboration network exists through academic co-authorship and visiting researcher programs rather than EU project structures.

What sets them apart

CREI stands out as one of Europe's elite macroeconomics research centres, attracting both ERC Starting and Advanced Grants — a sign that it houses economists at every career stage who can win the most competitive EU funding. Their combination of monetary policy, trade, and spatial economics expertise in a single centre is unusual; most institutes specialize in only one of these. For anyone needing world-class economic modelling or policy analysis as part of a broader EU project, CREI researchers bring deep theoretical rigour and strong publication records.

Highlights from their portfolio

• GEPPS
  Largest single grant (EUR 1.08M) examining the intersection of globalization, economic policy, and political structure — a rare blend of economics and political science.
• OPTNETSPACE
  Applies optimal transport theory to trade networks and urban geography — an unusually applied and spatial direction for a macroeconomics centre.
• INFOMAK
  Most recent project (2021), signals CREI's emerging focus on information frictions, credit cycles, and market complexity.