[9]The graduate degree programs it established in 1989 were later spun off to become the University of Asia and the Pacific in 1995, with many CRC consultants concurrently handling academic duties as professors.

The CRC was established as a think tank in 1967 by economists Bernardo M. Villegas and Jesus Estanislao, who were among the Philippines' young postwar generation academics able to study at Harvard.

[15]: 634–635 [16]: 27  The Presidential Commission on Good Government later cited a similar amount as an estimate of the unexplained wealth of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.

The meeting encouraged Estanislao and Villegas to expand the institution's horizons internationally, which resulted to its first graduate program, the Masters in Industrial Economics.

[24] Its notable research in the area concerns the support system needs of OFWs, on their reintegratrion experiences upon returning to the Philippines, and an influential 2022 study on OFWs physical and mental health needs [25] which was later awarded the inaugural APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize by the APEC Forum on Women and the Economy in 2019.