Regional Workshop for African Countries on Compilation of Basic Economic Statistics Pretoria, 23-26 July 2007 Administrative Data and their Use in Economic Statistics Vladimir Markhonko United Nations.
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Transcript Regional Workshop for African Countries on Compilation of Basic Economic Statistics Pretoria, 23-26 July 2007 Administrative Data and their Use in Economic Statistics Vladimir Markhonko United Nations.
Regional Workshop for African Countries on Compilation of Basic
Economic Statistics
Pretoria, 23-26 July 2007
Administrative Data and
their Use in Economic
Statistics
Vladimir Markhonko
United Nations Statistics Division
Contents
Definitions
Advantages
of using administrative
data
Common problems
Quality of administrative data
Using administrative data in practice
Conclusions
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Definition of
administrative data
narrow definition
wider definition
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Narrow Definition of
Administrative Data
Data available in records of
governmental agencies administering
various governmental programmes
Examples: tax records, customs
declarations, social security records
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Wider Definition of
Administrative Data
Data available in records of
Governmental agencies
+
Organizations operating in
private sector
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Administrative sources of data are
sources containing information
which is not primarily collected for
statistical purposes.
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Reasons for a wider definition
Privatisation
of some governmental
functions
Growth
of private sector organizations
collecting statistically significant data
User
interest in new types of data which
might not be collected by NSOs
Cost
efficiency
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Benefits of Administrative Data
Cost
Surveys / censuses are expensive,
administrative data are often “free”
Response
burden
Reduced burden on data suppliers
Statistics can be compiled more
frequently with no extra burden
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Coverage
Full coverage of target population
No survey errors and lower non-response
Better small-area data
Timeliness
can be improved for some types of data but
not for all
Public
image
National statistical office is perceived as
more efficient both in terms of cutting costs
and provision of better data
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An example: population census costs for
some European countries in 2000-2001
- €6.2 per person
Austria - €6.9 per person
Finland - €0.2 per person
UK
due to extensive use of administrative
data
Source: Eurostat – Documentation of the 2000
round of population and Housing censuses in the
EU, EFTA and Candidate Countries; Table 22
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Typical problems
Administrative
units do not always
coincide with statistical units
Need to perform data conversion
Difficulty in profiling of the more
complex cases
Gives a better understanding of
complex business structures
Expensive and needs trained staff
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Different
definitions and classifications
Conversion tables needed for different
classifications
Administrative
and statistical priorities
are often different
Timeliness
Data may arrive too late
Data relate to a different time period
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Change
Risk of changes in government
policy, thresholds, definitions,
coverage etc.
Need contingency plans
Data
management
from multiple sources
Matching / linking issues
Data conflicts – priority rules
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Quality of Administrative Data
Administrative
data will be better
than survey data in some aspects
but not in others
It
is important to look at overall
quality
Do
the data quality meet the needs
of users?
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Three Aspects of Quality
Quality
of incoming data
Quality
of processing
(matching, merging, ...)
Quality
of outputs - likely to be
different to survey based outputs,
but are they better?
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Quality Measurement
How
to measure the quality of
data from administrative
sources?
Comparing sources
Quality check surveys
Knowledge of source (metadata)
Quality reports
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Using Administrative Data
Conversion
to statistical concepts and
definitions
Linking / Matching
Exact Matching - linking records from two
or more sources, often using common
identifiers – unique identifier of units
Probabilistic Matching - determining the
probability that records from different
sources should match, using a
combination of variables
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Shift
in paradigm:
Some
statistical offices prefer first to
create a database populated with
administrative data and use statistical
surveys only to fill the gaps
Implies
a high degree of trust in quality
of administrative data
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Conclusions
Administrative
sources should be
defined in the widest sense
There are many benefits in using
administrative data, particularly the
reduced costs of data and better
coverage
There are problems when using
administrative data, but an acceptable
solution usually can be found
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Most
problems can be solved by
effective planning and detailed
knowledge of the source
The
benefits are greater than the
problems encountered
UNSD
plans to prepare a Handbook on
Use of Administrative Data and put
good country practices on its website.
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Thank you for your attention.
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