1. 1 OECD Conference: Assessing the Feasibility of Micro-Data Access Objectives Luxembourg, 26-27 October 2006 Nadim Ahmad, Statistics Directorate, OECD

2. 2 Background Increasing desire for micro-data access in analysis and policy formulation, accelerated by cheaper and faster computer power......which in turn have increased capacity and potential for NSOs to provide access. Conservative rules relating to access however have led users to conduct own surveys = additional costs on users & respondents, and, so, the economy, which are often of lower quality than micro-data held by NSOs = risks of inappropriate policy measures & of NSOs being overtaken by events or marginalised.

3. 3 Conference Objectives To provide input into the OECDs feasibility study exploring options in micro-data access; potentially resulting in the creation of an OECD Centre for micro- data access. To share best practice in micro-data access amongst statistical institutions and to encourage dissemination of a wider range of descriptive indicators.

4. 4 The OECDs Feasibility Study - Options Snap shot indicators Longitudinal indicators Bilateral projects Remote Access Transmission of micro-data –(5(i)) – Accessing private data sets

5. 5 Feasibility Study - Focus Points Feedback on Options Developing –Governance Rules –Disclosure Rules - (minimum number of observations per statistic; majority shares; limited data extraction size) –Disclosive Indicators Synthetic/Perturbed data sets. Volunteer Countries for remote access pilot study