1. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Business statistics surveys 1. Design 1 Business statistics and registers

2. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Introduction Business surveys are complicated; they need to be carefully prepared The set of tasks involved can be distinguished into two distinct parts: - Subject matter issues, involving subject-matter statisticians - Issues of supporting activities, involving those in charge of equipment, computer programs etc. If the survey is managed as a project, two project managers may be appointed 2

3. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Standardized steps The design of statistical projects entails the following steps: 3 1 Assessment of existing material 2 Development of plans and sub-projects 3 Realization of the sub-projects 4 Implementation of the new system 5 Development of maintenance programs, documentation, archives

4. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Quality measures Quality of statistics is about products and processes Quality criteria are: Relevance - a survey is relevant if it meets users’ needs Accuracy of estimates - accuracy is the closeness between the estimated value and the true population value Timeliness and punctuality in disseminating results Accessibility and clarity of the information Comparability of statistics 4

5. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Cost constraints Although not a measure of quality, the resources available for the production of statistics act as a constraint on quality It is necessary to take account of the resources available Information on the resources available to survey managers allows an assessment of how to optimize the budget they receive Two components of cost can be considered: the cost to the statistical office and the cost to the reporting units Costs for a new survey may be much higher than the costs for an existing survey The use of administrative data drastically reduces the burden on enterprises 5

6. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Exploration of user needs Do not only to communicate with the users raising the request for a survey, but also involve all potential user categories Important user categories are: 1.Government 2.Businesses 3.Research institutions 4.Associations, foundations, and other non-profit institutions 5.Educational institutes 6.The general public 7.Foreign users 8.Internal users 6

7. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Assessing user needs Finding out what users really need is not simple Statisticians must assist users in expressing their needs clearly Users must be made aware of the costs and reporting burden involved with collecting data Users must be explained how statistics about a specific topic would fit in the overall framework of economic statistics Often users will express conflicting needs Most data users have a broad interest Maintaining ongoing contact with the users helps to make them accept concessions 7

8. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Exploring supply When user needs are known investigation of existing sources of information is required It is important to avoid overlaps with other survey activities Existing data which do not exactly meet user needs, but can be used for calculations and estimations should also be taken into account When no other insufficient information is available, the next step is to find out whether the data wanted can be derived from existing administrative sources 8

9. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Statistical units The notion of “units” applies in different stages and contexts of the statistical process There is a distinction between: 1. The reporting unit from which data are obtained and by which forms are completed 2. The unit about which data are reported Units of type 1 and 2 are real-life units There are also artificially constructed analytical units In practice the three unit types often coincide 9

10. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Enterprise groups The highest unit in the hierarchy is the Enterprise Group An Enterprise Group is an association of enterprises bound together by legal and/or financial links An Enterprise Group controls all legal units with common ownership and control 10

11. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. The enterprise The Enterprise Group consists of enterprises Enterprises are bound to national borders An enterprise is the smallest combination of legal units (LUs) producing goods or services which has a certain degree of autonomy in decision making For combining LUs in one Enterprise three situations are relevant 1. LUs within an Enterprise Group, providing internal ancillary services to other parts of the Enterprise Group; 2. LUs organized according to vertical integration; 3. LUs organized according to horizontal integration. 11

12. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Vertical integration Suppose an Enterprise Group has a printing division and a bookbinding division Suppose both divisions are LUs All printing work is bound by the bookbinding division and all books bound are printed by the printing division The two Legal Units then constitute one Enterprise 12

13. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Horizontal integration Suppose an Enterprise Group consists of three legal units: one for the production of wooden tables, one for wooden chairs and one for cabinets The operations are technically and economically strongly interwoven: there is one management, the resources are shared, inputs are combined and marketing is done for the business as a whole The three Legal Units together make one Enterprise 13

14. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Establishments An establishment is defined as an ‘Enterprise or part of an Enterprise that is situated in a single location and with one single productive activity’ The International Standard Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) is designed for grouping units with similar activities into industries Industries may be heterogeneous when Enterprises have secondary activities that are different from their principal activities Then it is necessary to partition enterprises into more homogeneous units An establishment may have one or more secondary activities If a secondary activity is important, the unit involved is a local unit In the case of most small and medium-sized businesses, the Enterprise and the establishment are identical 14

15. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Other statistical units The concept of establishment combines activity and location When precision in activity and location is not required other types of units may be constructed for statistical purposes:  Kind-of-activity units are enterprise or part of enterprises engaged in only one kind of activity, regardless of location  Local units are enterprises or part of enterprises active at or from one location, regardless of kind of activity  Units of homogeneous production are analytical units used for input-output analysis; they perform only a single productive activity, regardless of location 15

16. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Institutional sector An institutional sector is a set of enterprises with similar financial behavior The SNA defines institutional sectors An Enterprise Group carrying out both banking and business services will be split up into two Enterprises, one belonging to the sector financial enterprises and the other to the sector non-financial enterprises 16

17. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Key variables Sales/Turnover, Breakdown By Product, Minus Trade Inputs Production Value, Breakdown By Product, Minus Intermediate Goods And Services Gross Valued Added, Minus Personnel Cost, Indirect Taxes, Indirect Subsidies Gross Operating Surplus, Minus Capital Cost / Depreciation (Fixed Capital Formation) Net Operating Surplus, Minus Interest, Rent, Other Income / Revenues Profit / Loss Most variables can be collected from Enterprises When there is need for regional specification, data may have to be collected from establishments 17

18. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Variables and statistical units The selection of variables and the choice of statistical units are interdependent The lower the unit in the hierarchy of which the Enterprise Group is the top level, the less data can be obtained or meaningfully compiled The relationship between units and variables can thus be characterized as a trade-off between homogeneity and number and detail of variables Data about profit can be measured at the level of the enterprise or enterprise group only Profits, observed at ENT level and tabulated according to ISIC-categories, will be polluted Data on value added can be measured at the level of establishments Core variables that can be meaningfully measured at the level of local units, are confined to employment and fixed capital formation 18

19. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Ideal and target population The appropriate tools for delineating the domain of interest are the statistical units and the classifications used for them Together with the time dimension they specify the theoretically ideal population There are circumstances necessitating deviation from this ideal population The populations to be distinguished are: - The ideal target population - The intended target population, based on what is possible in practice - The frame population, i.e. the set of units from which the sample is taken 19

20. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Time dimension In addition to classifications and units there is also the time reference to delineate a population Moment-bound populations work well for the compilation of moment-bound data like employment or stocks Many variables, like turnover and fixed capital formation, refer to a period This raises the question how to deal with population changes in the course of such a period 20

21. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Selection of concepts National accounts concept play an important role One should try to conform as much as possible to standardized terms and definitions For example: if fixed capital formation is a standardized concept, a survey on capital formation in environment should use this definition 21

22. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Definitions Formulating definitions should precede the choice of vocabulary Concepts should first be expressed in terms of definitions, after which the appropriate labels are assigned Conceptual definitions refer to the essence of a concept One should avoid using circular definitions An extensional definition comprises an exhaustive listing of all the elements, belonging to the domain of the concept When developing extensional and operational definitions for use in questionnaires, it is important to realize that different groups of respondents have their own vocabulary 22

23. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Table outline A survey design culminates in the design of the table outline The table outline provides the benchmark for the subsequent stages in the survey design By defining the reference period, by delineating the population and by selecting the variables, the boundaries of the survey scope have been drawn Table design asks for additional decisions with respect to breakdowns and detail levels to be presented to users It is important to specify the desired level of detail already in the design stage 23

24. Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Cooperation of respondents Obtaining cooperation from data providers is of course crucial for the success of a survey It is important to secure this cooperation during the design phase There are various ways to influence respondents’ attitudes towards a survey 24