The African School of Economics (ASE) is a private university headquartered in Abomey-Calavi (near Cotonou), Republic of Benin. It is the expansion of the Institute for Empirical Research in Political Economy (IERPE, IREEP in French), founded in 2004, into a full-fledged pan-African university. Faculty members come from top universities in the US, Canada and Europe. Currently (2016) it offers four graduate programs at master's level: Master in Mathematics, Economics and Statistics (MMES), Master in Business Administration (MBA), Master in Public Administration (MPA) and Master in Development Economics (MDE). ASE also offers a PhD program in Economics and two Certificate Programs, Impact Evaluation and Quantitative Finance.