1. Burden reduction in Prodcom
Experiences of Statistics Denmark
Ingeborg Vind,

2. Outline Prodcom in Statistics Denmark
Response burden – different types
Measures to reduce response burden
Prefill in survey form
Online data validation
Use of admin. data and other sources
Idep.web
Use of CN instead of Prodcom codes

3. Prodcom in Statistics Denmark
Prodcom - quarterly survey in Denmark
for quarterly National Accounts
All enterprises in manufacturing (B+C) with
10+ employees are surveyed (~3,000)
Survey is mandatory
Electronic survey form
Enterprises report all sales
according to CN codes and additional categories for services and other turnover

4. Two kinds of response burden
Measured response burden
Time spent to fill out survey (x salary of person doing the work, x number of enterprises, x number of surveys pr year)
Quantitative measure
Comparable across surveys and countries
Experienced response burden
Irritation, sense of uselessness/redundancy/irrelevance, etc.
Qualitative assessment
Often just as significant to the respondents as the measured burden
We work on reductions of both types

5. Pre-fill of survey form
Survey form is pre-filled with:
codes, values and quantities from previous report
For new enterprises in survey, prefill is with codes typical for their NACE code
Easy for respondents to remember how to fill
Stability: same code used for same products
Perhaps sometimes ‘too easy’, i.e. a tendency to always use the same codes, even if production changes

6. Online validation – at ‘Virk.dk’
Prompts when the form is filled
Missing fields (e.g. quantity)
Unlikely values (compared to last report)
Reduces burden by reducing re-concact by phone to verify data
Respondents expect electronic forms to be ‘smart’
But not always easy to communicate through simple one-way messages

7. Example, online validation
What does the respondent do?
Fill in actual quantity?
Nothing?
Fill in fictive number (e.g. ‘1’)?

8. Use of admin. data and other survey data
Tools for easy comparison of Prodcom data with VAT data and IPI survey data during data validation
Less re-contacting through cross-check; if same development is found in VAT or IPI data, we will not re-contact to verify
Future initiatives
easier comparison with Intrastat export data
analysis of possibilities to reduce sample for quarterly survey, by using VAT data for smaller enterprises

9. Idep.web – easy reporting of many codes
Idep.web: already in use for Intrastat
1/3 of Prodcom respondents already use Idep.web for their Intrastat reporting (more among larger companies with many products)
Online reporting tool
Upload reporting file (spreadsheet) generated by accounting system in enterprise
Build-in validation of codes
Faster than the online form (Virk.dk) when enterprises have many codes
Adapted for Prodcom use
possible because we use CN-codes
To be launched for data collection for 3rd quarter 2014

10. Use of Combined Nomenclature (CN)
Danish ‘Prodcom’ survey is older than Prodcom
We have ‘always’ used CN-based codes, for data collection as well as publication
Prior to 2007, national sub-divisions of some CN-codes
Discontinued as a burden reduction initiative
~80 pct. of Prodcom respondents are also exporters reporting to Intrastat/Extrastat
Response burden is reduced as enterprises only need to know one set of codes
Disadvantages
services are only covered in very broad categories
z-codes must be estimated