Professional user requirements of statistical dissemination

1
Professional user requirements of statistical
dissemination

• Comments on the papers to Session 1 of the 91st
  DGINS Conference, Copenhagen, 26 to 27 May 2005
  Heinrich Brüngger, UNECE

2
Professional Users

• In what way is dissemination to professional
  users different from the dissemination to
  non-professional users?
• Less or no metadata? (Nødgaard metadata are
  equally important for professional users)
• Advance release? (not in line with fundamental
  principles)
• Dissemination through on-line accessible
  databases intended only for professional users?
  (less and less the case)
• Tailor-made (user-defined) statistical services
  provided in addition to access to official
  results only for professional (government) users?
  

3
Professional Users (ctd.)

• Professional users are consulted more regularly
  and more systematically about decisions to be
  taken by statisticians concerning
• Statistical programmes in terms of coverage,
  breakdown and periodicity
• New series (incl. provisional results)
  discontinuation of old series
• Timeliness
• Reconstruction of long series after
  methodological changes
• Products to be disseminated and user-friendliness
  of dissemination/access

4
Professional Users (ctd.)

• How do we organise the communication with
  professional users to get a good feed-back
• At national level statistical committees and
  similar groups, for the whole system and by
  subject area, as well as many direct contacts
• At European level internal users, or users that
  at the same time producers, are clearly
  privileged in terms of possibilities of regular
  feed-back

5
Professional Users (ctd.)

• What type of questions do we ask them, so as to
  get useful answers (especially by avoiding a
   free-lunch  attitude)?
• Statistical offices/services have to filter and
  bundle user needs, both at national and
  international level, and to balance with response
  burden. Less evidence of this function taking
  place at international level

6
Multiple series

• Also professional users are confused
• Official statistics is about producing
  authoritative, impartial information for many
  users simloutaneously. Implication if
  conflicting information about the same issue is
  produced by official statistics,
  authoritativeness asks for some kind of hierarchy
  (tier system)
• Official vs. non-official statistics (from
  private sources, or from research institutes)
  need for  branding  of official statistics

7
Problems of International Databases

• How can incentives be created or reinforced for
  data work to be treated in a more sustained way
  by international organisations?
• External users expect the same degree of
  reliablity and comparability as from NSOs, and
  guarantees for the continuation of production
  over time independently of changes of internal
  priorities within IOs
• The use by internal users may not always be
  regular, stable over time, and analytical
• Data work is not spectacular enough compared to
  other activities of international statistical
  services

8
International databases (ctd.)

• Ensuring comparability (between countries and
  over time) requires more data, metadata and
  analytical work than at national level
• Countries may not always make available the
  necessary data or metadata in time, sometimes
  even in spite of legal obligations
• NSOs have no incentive to follow regularly the
  dissemination activities of international
  statistical producers, unless they make headlines
  in national media, or are used for  operational
  purposes  (eligibility for funds, membership
  fees etc.) that are crucial for selected national
  users

9
International Statistics

• One effect of globalisation is that there is a
  growing community of users of international
  statistics other than the internal users within
  IOs, and a growing media attention for
  international statistical results
• The environment in which international official
  statistics is produced has to become more like
  the best national ones, and the quality of
  outputs more similar, since users see national
  and international official statistics as two
  sides of the same medal
• Bad quality international official statistics may
  undermine the reputation of good national
  official statistics

10
International Statistics (ctd.)

• Should we introduce a comparability scale for
  intercountry comparisons to guide users?
• Should we have more external assessment of data
  work in international organisations, and more
  benchmark exercises?
• How can we stabilise the production and
  dissemination of international official
  statistics?
• How can we increase the authoritativeness of
  international statistics, given that the variety
  of different series and results, and the number
  of actors, is much greater than at national
  level?

11
International statistics (ctd.)

• The  Europe first  dilemma
• Is it possible at all to produce a supra- or
  international aggregate as a sum/average of
  statistics compiled by national statistical
  systems, with the same quality, timeliness and
  comparability as experienced from good national
  statistical systems? Would this require a
  different way of organising data collection,
  processing and dissemination?

12
Data Sharing between IOs

• Not the same definition of  statistical use 
  (ECB includes use for prudential supervision)
• Transmission of confidential data between
  national and international statistical
  authorities, and between IOs, requires consensus
  about what is statistical use  (6th UN
  fundamental principle to be used exclusively for
  statistical purposes promise to all respondents)
• At international level, the distinction between
  who is a producer or a user of statistics is
  often blurred