1. Administrative Data and their Use in Economic Statistics
Vladimir Markhonko
United Nations Statistics Division
Vladimir Markhonko 12/7/2007

2. Contents Definitions Advantages of using administrative data
Common problems
Quality of administrative data
Using administrative data in practice
Conclusions
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3. Narrow Definition
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4. Wider Definition
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5. Administrative sources are sources containing information which is not primarily collected for statistical purposes.
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6. Reasons for this Definition
Privatisation of some government functions
Growth of private sector “value-added re-sellers”
User interest in new types of data
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7. 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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8. Benefits of Administrative Data
Coverage
Full coverage of target population
No survey errors and lower non-response
Better small-area data
Timeliness (sometimes!)
Public image
Making use of existing data can enhance the prestige of a statistical organisation by making it seem more efficient
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9. Population Census Costs 2000-2001
UK, €367m, €6.2 per person
Austria, €56m, €6.9 per person
Finland, €0.8m, €0.2 per person
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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10. Common Problems
Administrative units do not always coincide with statistical units
Conversion via automatic rules for simple cases
Profiling for more complex cases
Gives a better understanding of complex business structures
Expensive and needs trained staff
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12. Common Problems Different definitions and classifications Timeliness
Administrative and statistical priorities are often different
Conversion matrices needed for different classifications
Timeliness
Data arrive too late
Data relate to a different time period
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13. VAT Birth Lags
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14. VAT Birth Lags
2/3 of businesses are on the register within 2 months of start-up
Mean lag = 4 months due to “outliers”
Median = Approx. 40 days
Some pre-register - negative lags
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15. Common Problems Change management Data from multiple sources
Risk of changes in government policy, thresholds, definitions, coverage etc.
Need contingency plans
Data from multiple sources
Matching / linking issues
Data conflicts – priority rules
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16. Quality of Administrative Data
There are many aspects to quality
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 meet the needs of users?
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17. 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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18. Quality Measurement
How to measure the quality of data from administrative sources?
Comparing sources
Quality check surveys
Knowledge of source (metadata)
Quality reports / templates
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19. Quality Templates
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20. Using Administrative Data
Conversion to statistical concepts and definitions
Linking / Matching
Exact Matching - linking records from two or more sources, often using common identifiers
Probabilistic Matching - determining the probability that records from different sources should match, using a combination of variables
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21. UK Business Register
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23. Satellite Registers
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24. Examples of Satellite Registers
Tourism - hotel register (category, number of beds)
Transport - vehicle or ship register (type, capacity)
Distributive trades - buildings register (building size, sales area)
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25. Conclusions
Administrative sources should be defined in the widest sense
There are many benefits in using administrative data, particularly reduced costs
There are problems when using administrative data, but usually someone has found a solution
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26. Conclusions
Most problems can be reduced by effective planning and detailed knowledge of the source
The benefits are often greater than the costs
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27. Thank you for your attention.
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