[citation needed] Michel Courcier had started his career after the liberation of France in the research service of the Ministry of Finance, and had assisted several former French colonies such as Cambodia, Madagascar and Senegal in their creation of a national accounting framework.

The research group was hosted by the Centre Français du Commerce Extérieur (CFCE), a trade promotion agency of the French government.

CEPII thus acquired an interagency profile mirrored by its board (French: Conseil du CEPII) 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 Directorate General for Enterprise [fr]), the Bank of France, and the Secretariat-General for National Defence.

The CEPII developed a series of publication formats: the monthly Lettre du CEPII from May 1979,[3]: 13 , the quarterly Économie Prospective Internationale from January 1980 (rebranded Économie Internationale in 1993),[3]: 14, 20  working papers (French: documents de travail) from 1984,[3]: 17  the yearly essay L'Économie mondiale from 1991,[3]: 18  and a first website in 1996.

[3]: 21 In late 2023, a government-commissioned report by economists Jean-Luc Tavernier [fr] and Nicolas Véron recommended a merger between CEPII and OFCE, another government-funded think tank that focuses on domestic economics.