Launched in 2002, this conference has become the most important yearly conference in public economics in Europe. It aims to promote and diffuse high quality research, with a special emphasis on articles that shed light on ’real world’ policy making. In this sense, this conference is in the spirit of the project developed by the late Louis-André Gérard-Varet in economics in Aix-Marseille (France). This path is followed by the research community at the Aix-Marseille School of Economics (AMSE).