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Association de comptabilité nationale and its conferences

ACN (Association de Comptabilité Nationale/National Accounting Association) was created in 1983 by INSEE and University Paris I. It became an registred association in 1992, in order to constitute a large forum, open to anyone with interest with the various aspects of national accounts.

Program of the 13th Conference of the Association de Comptabilité Nationale

The conference was held in Paris the 2,3,4 of June 2010, at the "Centre de conférence Pierre Mendès-France du Ministère de l’économie, de l’industrie et de l’emploi", 139 rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris.

Opening of the Conference Wednesday June 2

  • from 9 to 9 30: Welcoming the participants
  • from 9 30 to 10: Opening speeches by Jean-Philippe Cotis (Directeur général de l’INSEE) and Jean-Claude Colliard (Président de l’Université Paris1)

Session 1 - Crisis, accounting standards and asset valuation

Wednesday June 2 from 10 to 13

Organiser: Dominique Durant (Banque de France)

Chairman: Gilbert Cette (Banque de France)

Discussant: Nicolas Véron (Economist, Bruegel Institute in Brussels and Peterson Institute in Washington)

The normative debate regarding the valuation of assets and the recording of correlative changes in flows has livened up in recent years, among both private accountants and national accountants, especially in international circles (IASB, SNA2008). The financial crisis has brought new facts and new questions in the debate. First of all, the unanimous reference to "market value" becomes more questionable (it may result from a temporary "bubble", models used to fix this market value may be inadequate...). Secondly, accounting rules proved to be not only descriptive but retroacting with the business life and third party (with consequences on the display of profits, possibility of financing, the valuation of own funds...) in a way that depends on the economic sector.

In this context, national accountants may have to redefine their own goal. After an overview of the picture given by the financial accounts of the financial crisis, we have to examine possible improvements. To do this, it may be necessary to clarify what financial accounts want to describe (for example, what is their time horizon?) and what they are able to describe (for example, are they able to account for risks regarding the asset value?).


Papers presented:

  • Financial bubbles

    André Orléan (Cepremap)

  • Valuation in insurance and financial crisis

    Philippe Trainar (SCOR group)

  • Which value in national accounts?

    Dominique Durant (Banque de France)

  • Are the Financial Accounts a relevant tool to analyze the latest financial crisis?

    Frédéric Delamarre (Banque de France)

Session 2 - Measuring production and value added in financial activities

Wednesday June 2 from 14 30 to 18

Organiser: Paul Schreyer (OCDE)

Chairman: Antoine Frachot (GENES)

Measuring the financial sector (financial intermediaries, insurances) is particularly a challenge for statisticians. There are implicit prices, some difficulties to define precisely the services produced by the sector units and the important part of holding gains and losses. A well-known subject is the calculation of the Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured and this session will take stock of the debate. The new 2008 SNA has also raised questions about the measurement of the output of insurances. and this deserves discussion. Finally all these measures of output at current prices are only one side of the coin and it is also important to look at measures at constant prices, and/or at the price indices used to deflate the values of output.


Papers presented:

  • Conceptual framework and measurement of financial intermediation services indirectly measured

    Reimund Mink (BCE)

  • Implicitly Priced Bank Services in the US National Accounts: A Look Back and a Look Forward

    Marshall Reinsdorf (BEA)

  • Measuring banking activity in France

    Jean-Marie Fournier (INSEE) et Denis Marionnet ( Banque de France)

  • Measuring Re-insurance activity: the case of Switzerland

    Elena Marton (Office Fédéral des Statistiques)

From 18 to 19 - Cocktail

Session 3 - Problems in the implementation of the SNA in African countries

Thursday June 3 from 9 30 to 13

Organiser: Alain Tranap (INSEE)

Chairman: Gérard Klotz (Université Lyon II et Institut des sciences humaines, UMR Triangle CNRS)

With the publication of the new 2008 SNA, time is appropriate to see where National Accounts are in Africa about the implementation of the 1993 SNA. The difficulties are often firstly practical: few or inadequate resources, human as well as materials, gaps in the statistical system, but also political or economic crisis. Systemic difficulties to integrate balance of payments, produced by regional banks, and national accounts, in countries with a big external trade unbalance or with crucial remittances of foreign workers. Finally conceptual difficulties: measure of the informal sector, now expanded to include illegal activities, and the lag between the agricultural calendar and the civil year of the accounts.


Papers presented:

  • Implementation of SNA93 in AFRISTAT Member States

    Doffou N'Guessan (AFRISTAT)

  • Implementing the SNA93 in Anglophone African countries

    Tim Jones (Expert international)

  • The implementation of SNA93 and ERETES in Cameroon

    Erith Nghogue (INS-Cameroun)

  • The compilation of national accounts in a country in crisis: overview of the INS Côte d'Ivoire

    Magloire Ligbet (INS-Côte d'Ivoire)

  • The national accounts of a Sahel country: Burkina Faso

    B. François Ramdé (INS-Burkina Faso)

Session 4 - What representation for the production process ?

Thursday June 3 from 14 30 to 18

Organiser: Fabrice Lenglart (INSEE)

Chairman: David Encaoua (Université Paris1)

National accountants are facing a real challenge to describe present economic developments, which are now taking place in a worldwide framework overflowing the usual national framework, as regards the production organisation, its financing, as well as its interaction with the environment. Producing national account figures in such a context requires coming back to the question of the representation of the production process: which production unit ? for which description of the production process ? for which description of the corresponding income, or environmental damages, generated ?


Papers presented:

  • Profiling business groups and it’s effect on business statistics

    Vincent Hecquet (INSEE)

  • Goods for Processing in the 2008 SNA

    Nadim Ahmad (OCDE)

  • Intangible investments in France

    Vincent Delbecque (CREST)

  • The contribution of capital to GDP growth: For a distinction between capital stock and related capital services

    Pierre-Alain Pionnier (Banque de France)

From 18 to 19: Meeting of the Association de Comptabilité Nationale

Session 5 - After the Stiglitz Commission report, what evolutions for national accounting ?

Friday June 4 from 9 30 to 13

Organiser: Fabrice Lenglart (INSEE)

Chairman: Jean-Etienne Chapron (INSEE)

National accounts are more and more confronted to users’ critics, as regards the adequacy of current measures of economic performance. Moreover, there are broader concerns about how defining measures of societal well-being, as well as measures of economic, environmental and social sustainability. The recently published Stiglitz Commission report, has presented recommendations on supplementary pieces of information to be produced and account framework’s evolutions to be envisaged. As accounting international and European manuals are being under review process (SNA,ESA for central accounts, SEEA for environmental accounts), this session aims at a stock taking exercise on these issues. Papers will present either theoretical reflections or some practical progresses that can be envisaged.


Papers presented:

  • On the Report of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress : The Viewpoint of a Retired National Accountant

    André Vanoli (ACN)

  • Inequality between households in the national accounts: Income, consumption, savings and purchasing power by household category

    Maryse Fesseau (INSEE)

  • Carbon dioxide emissions due to household consumption

    Christophe Lesieur (INSEE)

  • An overview of the National Accounts in the future?

    Fabrice Lenglart (INSEE), Jacques Magniez (INSEE), André Vanoli (ACN)