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Head-Office Directorates: the Economic Studies and National Accounts Directorate

The Economic Studies and National Accounts Directorate (DESE) produces and coordinates the preparation of accounts, studies, projections, and models that provide a better understanding of the changes in the French economy in its international environment. It defines the general guidelines for macroeconomic work at the Institute, and handles institutional relations with third parties in the areas of national accounting, forecasting, and economic studies.

The Directorate is composed of three Departments.

  • The Department of Short-Term Economic Analysis is responsible for all of the Institute's analyses of current trends and developments, most notably the Notes de conjoncture (short-term reports) that periodically summarize the international and French economic situation and short-term outlook. The Department supervises all the national business surveys as well as any specific surveys requested by the European Union, such as the Household Survey.
  • The National Accounts Department produces and analyzes all the French national accounts (annual and quarterly) by summarizing the statistics and indicators produces by other INSEE units and relevant third-party organizations. It prepares the input-output tables and sectoral accounts (general government, enterprises, households, and "rest of the world") as well as the wealth accounts. The Department is responsible for reporting the general-government deficit and debt figures to the European Commission under the excess-deficit procedure. The Department acts as editor-in-chief of the official report on the national accounts (Rapport sur les Comptes de la Nation).
  • The Department of General Economic Studies is in charge of analyzing the current situation and changes in the French economy on the medium- to long-term horizon, taking account of the international environment and European integration. For these assignments, it develops, maintains, and implements macro- and microeconomic models. The Department also exploits microeconomic data to shed light on the behavior of enterprises in such areas as innovation, labor demand, investment, financing methods, and effects of new technologies. It analyzes the incidence of social transfers on household resources and economic behavior, and prepares long-term projections of social spending.

Head-Office Directorates