Transcript Conference of European Statisticians 11 June 2007 Effectiveness of Statistical Programs Jan Plovsing National Statistician Director General June 2007

Conference of European Statisticians
11 June 2007
Effectiveness of Statistical Programs
Jan Plovsing
National Statistician
Director General
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June 2007
Defining our Theme
Effectiveness means the degree to which the statistical
programs achieve their purposes.
The users are the judges.
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A Treasure of Information
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The Papers Deal with 3 Important Topics
• How may we identify user needs?
• How do we match increasing needs with limited resources?
• How can we measure the outcome? Are we meeting user
needs?
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Effectiveness of Statistical Programs 1
Main question:
The statistical program:
What statistics to produce?
Planning the products
DEMAND
Identifying user needs
Quality framework
International users
EU/ECB
Advisory committees
Consultations
Market mechanism
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RESOURCES
Managing the costs
Priority setting
Reallocation
Response burden
Institute capacity
Effectiveness of Statistical Programs 2
The
Statistical
Program
Production
and
Dissemination
Effectiveness of the program:
Meeting user needs
How can we know?
Evaluations etc.
User surveys
Customer satisfaction surveys
Feedback
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Indicators of use
The Statistical Program Planning
• Many/most statistics are enshrined in legislation and
other statutory instruments
– 75 pct. in Canada
– More than 100 federal laws in Germany
– European regulations cover in general 60 – 80 pct. of the
programs in member countries
– EU member countries may in addition also have national
laws
• Conclusion: Planning is a process of adjustments
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First Topic:
Mechanisms for Identifying User Needs
•
A quality framework. Planning is about improvements in relevance
accuracy, timeliness etc. A method to identify the usefulness (CAN)
•
International users: SDDS of IMF (GER)
•
EU/ECB. One example: The 19 Principle European Economic
Indicators (GER)
•
Advisory committees (CAN, GER, EUR)
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Consultations with Government, Provinces etc. (CAN)
•
Market mechanisms (CAN)
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Second topic:
Managing the Costs
• Priority setting
– The product portfolio (classification). A matrix with 12 + 1 cells defined by
the size of the costs and the size of the benefits such as high data quality,
reduced burden on respondents, higher efficiency, improved image etc.
(GER)
– A cost benefit analysis of all statistical fields in the EU statistical program
2008 – 2012 (EUR)
– Cost estimates for all changes in the program (CAN)
• Reallocation: 1 pct. efficiency tax from all programs (CAN)
• Response burden: A major political issue in Europe (EUR,GER)
– Measured by the net/standard cost model
• Institute capacity (CAN)
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Third topic:
Are we Meeting User Needs? How can we know?
• Evaluations
– IMF: ROSC missions (GER)
– EU: European Statistics Code of Practice (EUR)
• User surveys (GER, CAN)
• Customer satisfaction surveys (GER)
• Indicators of use (Mentioned in the introductory note
from Latvia)
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Researchers Using Statistics Denmark’s Research
Facilities
1986:
2 researchers
1997:
71 researchers
2002: 151 researchers
2004: 250 researchers
2005: 300 researchers
2006: 565 researchers
2007: 615 researchers (estimate)
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External Data Extracts from StatBank Denmark
1986 -2007*
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Statistics Denmark’s Press Coverage
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Thousand mentionings of Statistics Denmark in national media
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15
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5
0
2000
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2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Questions to Statistics Canada
• Statistics Canada has a very advanced planning system.
Could it be improved? If yes: In what direction?
• Is the response burden on businesses not a very important
political issue in Canada?
• Why is the efficiency tax on all program budgets fixed at
(only) 1% a year? Is it because the planning process
implies further (2%?) selective savings?
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Questions to DESTATIS
• The content of the statistical program is in general
defined by federal laws. Does this imply that new EU
legislation (almost) automatically results in a new
German statistical law?
• What percentage of the costs entailed by new EU
legislation will in general have to be borne by
DESTATIS present budget?
• The product portfolio is a very advanced planning
tool. Could you explain what concrete results you
expect to achieve by developing the system further?
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Questions to Eurostat
Political bodies at national and European level are
calling for simplification and priority setting (page 3)
• Will there be statistical areas where Eurostat’s program
can lead to a reduction in concrete statistics in 2008 or
2009? Which statistics?
• Public support for the EU has declined (page 2). Does it
really effect the purpose of Eurostat’s statistical
programme? In what way?
• Which users are considered the most important for
Eurostat?
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Questions for General Discussion
• We have good planning systems but weak measures
of whether we really meet users needs. Am I right?
• Could you mention other examples of indicators of
use, i.e. effectiveness of the statistical programme?
• Is it possible/meaningful to measure the outcome of
statistical information in terms of political and
economic actions?
• Are there any examples of such measures?
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