The Secretariat

The secretariat assists the Chairmanship preparing the reports to the Economic Council and the Environmental Economic Council and performing the Chairmanships other task, including the role as Fiscal Watchdog and National Productivity Board. The secretariat and the chairmanship are both completely independent from to the Government, the Council members, and other special interests.

The secretariat is headed by Director, Niels Lynggaard Hansen.  The address of the secretariat is:

Danish Economic Council
Emil Møllers Gade 41
DK-8700 Horsens

Mail: dors@dors.dk
Phone: +45 51 51 28 00

The Secretariat employs approximately 30 professional economists. The analysts covers a wide area of topics, including:

  • Structural Analysis. Analysis of structural issues related to the tax system, labour market policies, the design of the welfare state and other policy areas.  Many analyses incorporates calculations based on macroeconomic models (CGE and traditional macro model). Other analysis focuses the exploitation of data on individuals and firms based on existing administrative registers
  • Forecasts and Public Finances. Short and medium-term forecasts of the Danish Economy, including the public finances. Forecasts are prepared utilizing the macroeconomic model, SMEC, which is maintained by the sectretarat. The forecasts of public finances, including calculations on the long-term sustainability, is a major input to chairmanships evaluations of the compliance with fiscal rules
  • Environmental Economics. Analysis related to environmental economics, including climate and energy policy, natural resources, and valuation of non-marktet environmental goods and services

 

Information on the secretariat

The secretariat's analyses are solidly founded on empirical and theoretical basis. The primary research areas are macroeconomic forecasts, economic policy, international economics, labour market economics, macroeconometric models, resource and environmental economics, growth theory, income distribution and general equilibrium models.

The analyses by the Secretariat are often based on model calculations. The models developed and used by the Secretariat include a traditional large-scale macroeconomic model SMEC. The SMEC-model is used for forecasting as well as conducting policy-analysis. Furthermore, the secretariat also uses general equilibrium models, which are developed or modified in relation to the specific analyses at hand.

The secretariat has ongoing contacts to researchers, organizations, and government agencies, both internationally and in Denmark. The secretariat participates in the European network of conjuncture institutes, AIECE, which consists of around 40 research institutes in around 20 countries. The secretariat also participates in an informal network of Independent Fiscal Institutions (IFI's, "Fiscal Watch Dogs", EU-IFI). The secretariate alse participates in the (ir)regular meetings arranged within in network of National Productivity Boards.

The secretariat publishes a series of Working Papers, which primarily contains detailed information on the analyses of selected subjects of the reports.