Research is an integral part of the academic process at NES. An essential component of the program for each student is the preparation of a Master's thesis. The writing of the thesis is closely supervised either within the research center's program or through research workshops offered to second year students. Both Russian and visiting professors serve as project directors and thesis advisers.

In 1995, NES, with the help of the Ford Foundation established a research center where students, visiting scholars and NES faculty (including those returning from training abroad) work together on research projects related to the economic transition. The initial core program of the Center is the study of the problems of Transforming Government in Economies in Transition (GET). Some recent areas of research have included macroeconomic stabilization, financial industrial groups, banking and financial markets, reform in Volga cities, fiscal federalism, rent-seeking and corruption, income distribution and poverty, pensions, health care, and the environment.

Research is conducted in cooperation with CEMI, the Russian Government, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Russian European Centre for Economic Policy (RECEP), and a number of other research groups in Russia. There is also cooperation in research with the London Business School and other institutions in Western Europe and North America.

Conferences and Dissemination: The results of the research conducted by students and project directors is presented in two annual conferences, in the spring and in the fall. The conferences are attended by the Moscow academic community and by invited scholars from abroad. Among the guest speakers at these conferences have been Anthony Atkinson, Boris Fedorov, Roman Frydman, Yegor Gaidar, Sergei Shagyev, Viktor Danilov, Alexander Livshits, and Andreu Mas-Colell. Selected research papers are published and disseminated in a research papers series and in best students papers series.