The Canadian Integrated Approach to Economic Surveys

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The Canadian Integrated Approach to Economic
Surveys

• Marie Brodeur, Peter Koumanakos,
• Jean Leduc, Éric Rancourt, Karen Wilson
• Statistics
  Canada
• International Workshop on Economic Census
• Beijing, July 26-29, 2005

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Overview of the presentation

• 1. Scope of the presentation
• 2. Background
• 3. Core Underlying Principles
• 4. Survey Characteristics
• 5. Business Register
• 6. Sampling
• 7. Achievements
• 8. Enterprise Financial Program
• 9. Management of UES
• 10. Future Directions

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1. Scope of the presentation

• Paper provides details about our complete
  integrated approach
• Systems of National Accounts
• Business Register
• Unified enterprise Survey (UES)
• Establishment level
• Enterprise level

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2. UES Background

• Major project to improve provincial statistics
  (1996)
• Reliable Annual Provincial Data for the
  Allocation of HST Revenues (SNA I-O Tables)
• More detailed Industry Commodity data
• Creation of Enterprise Statistics Division (ESD)
• UES Pilot (RY 1997) -- 7 surveys
• Gradual Expansion of Surveys Covers 75 of GDP

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3. Core Underlying Principles

• Use of Single, Unduplicated Frame -- the BR
• Expended coverage
• Common Sample Design Methodology
• Integrated Questionnaire -- common / simple
  language harmonized concepts / variables
• Data collection at the Statistical Establishment
  level

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3. Core Underlying Principles

• Common generic processing systems and methods
• Centralized warehouse
• Head Office Survey
• Maximum Use of Tax Data
• Annual Profiling of Large Enterprises
• Enterprise Portfolio Managers

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4. Survey Characteristics

• Separate Enterprise Establishment Surveys
• 42 Establishment Surveys
• Over 55,000 collection entities representing
  about 68,000 establishments (17K replaced by tax
  for RY 2004)
• Centralized Collection -- 3.5 million budget
• Smallest businesses estimated through tax

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5. Business Register (BR)

• BR covers all sectors
• Incorporated and unincorporated businesses
• Complex and simple enterprises
• Structure
• Legal
• Operational
• Statistical (Enterprise Establishment)
• Updated with Administrative Data

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6. Sampling

• Time-in sample is managed by sample control file
  (SCF)
• Stratified Random Sample
• Industry (NAICS 4)
• Province
• Size
• 1 Take-all stratum
• 2 Take-some strata (50 of units replaced by tax)
• Take-none strata (under Royce-Maranda thresholds)

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Sampling Process
BR (2.3M businesses)
Survey Universe File (2M businesses)
Tax Estd (1.3M)
Sample Control File (700K businesses)
UES Sample (70K businesses)
55K CEs
Survey Interface File 38K CEs / Questionnaires
Tax Replacements 17K CEs
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7. Achievements

• Timeliness
• Centralized Processing Systems and Databases
• Use of Tax Data
• Respondent Burden Reduction

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7a. Timeliness

• Very problematic during start-up years
• Many processing systems in development
• Problems with questionnaires
• Task force created in 2001
• Target 15 months after reference year
• For RY 2003, all surveys between 12-15 month
  period

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7b. Centralized Processing Systems and
Databases

• Develop centralized systems
• Move away from stand-alone
• Single point of access for security
• Integrated Questionnaire Metadata System
• Edit and imputation
• Allocation and Estimation
• Data Warehouse

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Collection
Score Function
Pre-Contact (17K Businesses)
Mailout (38K CEs)
Edit / Verification (BLAISE)
Receipt (75 target)
Clean Records
Delinquent Follow-Up
Capture / Imaging
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Post-Collection Processing
Clean Records
Tax Data
Central Data Store
Pre-Grooming
USTART
Edit Imputation
Subject Matter Review Correction Tool
Allocation / Estimation
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7c. Use of Tax data

• Significant process since 1997
• Close to 600,000 small simple establishments
  (under threshold) - Macro adjustment
• 17,000 additional simple establishments
• Tax data used in editing and imputation
• Result
• Almost 65 of units replaced by tax data

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7d. Respondent Burden Reduction

• Reduced size of questionnaires
• From 12-14 pages to 4-5 pages
• Use of the Chart of Accounts
• Related to the use of tax data
• Ombudsman function
• Enterprise Portfolio Managers
• Result
• 40 reduction of of hours between 2000 to 2004

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8. Enterprise Financial Program

• Monitor the size, the financial structure and
  position of the corporate sector
• Business Register
• Survey of complex enterprises over 250 millions
  in revenues or assets
• Consolidated Balance Sheets and Income
  Statements, corporate taxation
• Use of Tax data

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9. Management of the UES

• ESD provides functional support and coordination
• A series of committees is charged with process
  clarification decision making

Project Management Team
Operations Management Committee
Frame Operations
Sampling
Tax Data Operations
Content / Collection
Processing Operations
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10. Future Directions

• SID/Culture Stats survey integration and content
  harmonisation into UES
• Change Management Team
• Sign-off process
• Holistic Response Management strategy
• Business Register Redesign
• Welcome new surveys

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