PSE is a brainchild of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, where the students are enrolled primarily), the École Normale Supérieure, the École des Ponts and University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, and it is physically located on the ENS campus of "Jourdan" in the 14th "arrondissement" of Paris. It was founded in 2006 as a coalition of universities and "grandes écoles" to unify high-level research in economics across French academia, and was first presided by economist Thomas Piketty. Since its foundation it has gained a certain amount of academic weight, and according to a ranking released by project RePEc in May 2020, it was ranked as the fifth-best university-level economics department in the world. Paris School of Economics' ranking has consistently risen since it was listed on the rankings on RePEc.