[1] The center was founded in 1991 by a group that included Jan Švejnar and Jozef Zieleniec, with a goal to educate a new generation of economists from post-communist countries.

[citation needed] There are 20 permanent faculty members,[3] most of whom have studied PhDs in economics from U.S. and Western European universities.

CERGE-EI students frequently conduct part of their dissertation research at partner universities in Western Europe and North America.

Fifth-year students receive funding in the form of a salary through employment as Junior Economic Institute Researchers (JEIRs).

The Visiting Master's Scheme is run jointly by CERGE-EI and the Institute of Economics Studies (IES) at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague.

The permanent and visiting faculty of CERGE-EI is currently composed of members from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Croatia and the United States.

CERGE-EI was granted permission by Václav Havel to seek support for an endowed chair in political economy in his name.

CERGE-EI publishes an in-house working paper series, organizes regular research seminars at which academics from universities around the world present their current papers, hosts professional conferences, and houses the largest economics library in Central and Eastern Europe.

The ESC is composed of internationally recognized scholars in the field of economics, representatives of Charles University and the Academy of Sciences, and tenured faculty members of CERGE-EI.