The Centre d'Études Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (), generally referred to by its acronym CEPII, is a French institute for research in

international economics International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity from international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns an ...

. It is government-funded and part of the Office of the Prime Minister, within a network coordinated by

France Stratégie France Stratégie () is a government policy analysis body in Paris, initially known as the Commissariat général à la stratégie et à la prospective () from its creation in April 2013 to its rebranding in June 2014. It is government-funded an ...

. The origins of CEPII go back to the creation in 1963 by French official Michel Courcier of the GEPEI (), rebranded GEPI () in the 1970s. In 1978, CEPII was given permanent status by government order, with Courcier as its founding director. The CEPII has a core team of around 30 economists. The four main research areas are:

factor market In economics, a factor market is a market where factors of production are bought and sold. Factor markets allocate factors of production, including land, labour and capital, and distribute income to the owners of productive resources, such as wage ...

s and growth; the international financial and

monetary system A monetary system is a system where a government manages money in a country's economy. Modern monetary systems usually consist of the national treasury, the mint, the central banks and commercial banks. Commodity money system A commodity mon ...

; EU economy;

international trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.) In most countries, such trade represents a significan ...

models.

History

Precursors

Michel Courcier had started his career after the

liberation of France The liberation of France () in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance. Nazi Germany in ...

in the research service of the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

, and had assisted several former French colonies such as

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

in their creation of a

national accounting National accounts or national account systems (NAS) are the implementation of complete and consistent accounting techniques for measuring the economic activity of a nation. These include detailed underlying measures that rely on double-entry ...

framework. From his international experience, he gained a belief that the methodologies and achievements of French national accounting could and should be expanded to the international level, which became the driving insight for the creation of GEPEI in 1963. The research group was hosted by the Centre Français du Commerce Extérieur (CFCE), a trade promotion agency of the French government. An early opportunity came with the preparation of President

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

visit Visit refer as go to see and spend time with socially. Visit may refer to: *State visit, a formal visit by a head of state to a foreign country *Conjugal visit, in which a prisoner is permitted to spend several hours or days in private with a visit ...

to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in June 1966, for which the GEPEI prepared briefing materials and from which it developed regular relationships with the Soviet

Gosplan The State Planning Committee, commonly known as Gosplan ( ), was the agency responsible for economic planning, central economic planning in the Soviet Union. Established in 1921 and remaining in existence until the dissolution of the Soviet Unio ...

. The GEPEI thus became a leading center of expertise on the economy of the Communist bloc. Meanwhile, its research team was joined by economists such as in 1966,

Anton Brender Anton Brender is a member of the Cercle des économistes. He is also a professor at the Paris Dauphine University, and Chief Economist for the Belgian-French financial institution A financial institution, sometimes called a banking institutio ...

in 1969,, or

Jean Pisani-Ferry Jean Pisani-Ferry (born July 28, 1951) is a French economist and public policy expert. He is a fellow at think tanks Bruegel in Brussels and the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C. He is also a senior professor in ...

in 1977. By the early 1970s, Courcier and Lafay had developed an

economic model An economic model is a theoretical construct representing economic processes by a set of variables and a set of logical and/or quantitative relationships between them. The economic model is a simplified, often mathematical, framework designed ...

of the global economy.

Founding

In 1978, Prime Minister

Raymond Barre Raymond Octave Joseph Barre (; 12 April 192425 August 2007) was a French politician and economist. He was a Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs under three presidents ( Rey, Malfatti a ...

, on advice from General Planning Commissioner Michel Albert and from his own economic adviser

Jean-Claude Casanova Jean-Claude Casanova (born 11 June 1934 in Ajaccio) is a French economist, educator and public intellectual with a lifetime involvement in French civic life. He was the chairman of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques between 2007 a ...

, reformed the GEPI by expanding its resources, relocating it within the machinery of government from CFCE to the General Planning Commission, and rebranding it as CEPII. CEPII thus acquired an interagency profile mirrored by its board () which brought together the heads or deputy heads of major government organizations with economic expertise such as the Planning Commission, the Direction du Trésor, INSEE, the Directorate for External Economic Relations (later merged into the ''Trésor''), the ''Direction Générale de l'Industrie'' (later merged into the ), the

Bank of France The Bank of France ( ) is the national central bank for France within the Eurosystem. It was the French central bank between 1800 and 1998, issuing the French franc. It does not translate its name to English, and thus calls itself ''Banque de F ...

, and the Secretariat-General for National Defence.

Development

The GEPEI was initially established in Paris on Quai Branly, then Avenue d'Iéna, then on 54-48, rue Saint-Denis. In late 1980, its successor CEPII moved from there to 9, rue Georges Pitard, where it remained for three decades. In 2010 CEPII relocated to 113, rue de Grenelle, then in 2017 to 20, avenue de Ségur in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The CEPII developed a series of publication formats: the monthly ''Lettre du CEPII'' from May 1979,, the quarterly ''Économie Prospective Internationale'' from January 1980 (rebranded ''Économie Internationale'' in 1993), working papers () from 1984, the yearly essay ''L'Économie mondiale'' from 1991, and a first website in 1996.

Merger with OFCE

In late 2023, a government-commissioned report by economists and Nicolas Véron recommended a merger between CEPII and French Observatory of Economic Cycles (OFCE), another government-funded think tank that focuses on domestic economics. Upon the report's publication, Prime Minister

Élisabeth Borne Élisabeth Borne (; born 18 April 1961) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from May 2022 to January 2024. A member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance (French political party), Renaissance, she is the secon ...

endorsed the recommendation. As of May 2023, OFCE was ranked 16th worldwide (and first in France) among economic think tanks by the

RePEc Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in many countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics. The heart of the project is a decentralized database of working papers, preprints, ...

initiative.

Leadership

The successive chief executives () of the CEPII have been: * Michel Courcier, July 1978 - December 1979 (and head of the GEPEI, then GEPI since 1963) *

Christian Sautter Christian Sautter (born 9 April 1940) is a French politician. He served as Minister for Economics, Finance, and Industry from 1999 to 2000 as part of Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who serve ...

, January 1980 - May 1981 * , July 1981 - August 1985 * Jean-Michel Charpin, September 1985 - March 1990 *

, March 1990 - March 1992 *

, June 1992 - June 1997 * Jean-Claude Berthélemy, January 1998 - March 2000 * , March 2000 - June 2006 * Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, July 2006 - December 2012 * Sébastien Jean, December 2012 - August 2022 * Antoine Bouët, since October 2022 Chairs of the ''Conseil du CEPII'': * , July 1978 - December 1982 * Michel Albert, December 1982 - December 1995 *

Francis Mer Francis Mer (25 May 1939 – 1 November 2023) was a French businessman, industrialist and politician. An alumnus of the École polytechnique (class of 1959), and of the École des Mines de Paris, he was a member of the Corps des mines. Mer was ...

, December 1995 - March 2000 * Michel Camdessus, March 2000 - July 2004 * , July 2004 - 2009 *

Jean Lemierre Jean Lemierre (born 6 June 1950) is a French former public servant who was the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 2000 to 2008. He is now chairman of BNP Paribas. Career Public sector In 2000, Lemierre was el ...

, since November 2009 The CEPII created a Scientific Committee () in 2000, successively chaired by François Bourguignon (2000-2004),

Olivier Blanchard Olivier Jean Blanchard (; born December 27, 1948) is a French economist and professor. He is Robert M. Solow Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor of Economics at the Paris School of Economics, an ...

(2004-2007), Francesco Giavazzi (2007-2020?), and Marc Melitz (since 2020?).

Notes

External links

Website of CEPII
{{DEFAULTSORT:Centre D'etudes Prospectives Et D'informations Internationales 1978 establishments in France Think tanks established in 1978 Economic research institutes Political and economic think tanks based in France