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Conference of European Statisticians11 June 2007
Jan PlovsingNational Statistician
Director General June 2007
Effectiveness of Statistical Programs
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Defining our Theme
Effectiveness means the degree to which the statistical
programs achieve their purposes.
The users are the judges.
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A Treasure of Information
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The Papers Deal with 3 Important Topics
• How may we identify user needs?
• How do we match increasing needs with limited resources?
• How can we measure the outcome? Are we meeting user needs?
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Effectiveness of Statistical Programs 1
Main question: The statistical program:
What statistics to produce? Planning the products
DEMANDIdentifying user needsQuality frameworkInternational usersEU/ECBAdvisory committeesConsultationsMarket mechanism
RESOURCESManaging the costs
Priority settingReallocationResponse burdenInstitute capacity
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Effectiveness of Statistical Programs 2
Effectiveness of the program:Meeting user needs
How can we know?
Evaluations etc.User surveysCustomer satisfaction surveysIndicators of use
The StatisticalProgram
Feedback
Productionand
Dissemination
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The Statistical Program Planning
• Many/most statistics are enshrined in legislation and other statutory instruments
– 75 pct. in Canada
– More than 100 federal laws in Germany
– European regulations cover in general 60 – 80 pct. of the programs in member countries
– EU member countries may in addition also have national laws
• Conclusion: Planning is a process of adjustments
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First Topic:Mechanisms for Identifying User Needs
• A quality framework. Planning is about improvements in relevance accuracy, timeliness etc. A method to identify the usefulness (CAN)
• International users: SDDS of IMF (GER)
• EU/ECB. One example: The 19 Principle European Economic Indicators (GER)
• Advisory committees (CAN, GER, EUR)
• Consultations with Government, Provinces etc. (CAN)
• Market mechanisms (CAN)
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Second topic:Managing the Costs
• Priority setting– The product portfolio (classification). A matrix with 12 + 1 cells defined by
the size of the costs and the size of the benefits such as high data quality, reduced burden on respondents, higher efficiency, improved image etc. (GER)
– A cost benefit analysis of all statistical fields in the EU statistical program 2008 – 2012 (EUR)
– Cost estimates for all changes in the program (CAN)
• Reallocation: 1 pct. efficiency tax from all programs (CAN)
• Response burden: A major political issue in Europe (EUR,GER)– Measured by the net/standard cost model
• Institute capacity (CAN)
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Third topic:Are we Meeting User Needs? How can we know?
• Evaluations– IMF: ROSC missions (GER)
– EU: European Statistics Code of Practice (EUR)
• User surveys (GER, CAN)
• Customer satisfaction surveys (GER)
• Indicators of use (Mentioned in the introductory note from Latvia)
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Researchers Using Statistics Denmark’s Research Facilities
1986: 2 researchers
1997: 71 researchers
2002: 151 researchers
2004: 250 researchers
2005: 300 researchers
2006: 565 researchers
2007: 615 researchers (estimate)
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External Data Extracts from StatBank Denmark 1986 -2007*
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Statistics Denmark’s Press Coverage
0
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10
15
20
25
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Thousand mentionings of Statistics Denmark in national media
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Questions to Statistics Canada
• Statistics Canada has a very advanced planning system. Could it be improved? If yes: In what direction?
• Is the response burden on businesses not a very important political issue in Canada?
• Why is the efficiency tax on all program budgets fixed at (only) 1% a year? Is it because the planning process implies further (2%?) selective savings?
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Questions to DESTATIS
• The content of the statistical program is in general defined by federal laws. Does this imply that new EU legislation (almost) automatically results in a new German statistical law?
• What percentage of the costs entailed by new EU legislation will in general have to be borne by DESTATIS present budget?
• The product portfolio is a very advanced planning tool. Could you explain what concrete results you expect to achieve by developing the system further?
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Questions to Eurostat
Political bodies at national and European level are calling for simplification and priority setting (page 3)
• Will there be statistical areas where Eurostat’s program can lead to a reduction in concrete statistics in 2008 or 2009? Which statistics?
• Public support for the EU has declined (page 2). Does it really effect the purpose of Eurostat’s statistical programme? In what way?
• Which users are considered the most important for Eurostat?
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Questions for General Discussion
• We have good planning systems but weak measures of whether we really meet users needs. Am I right?
• Could you mention other examples of indicators of use, i.e. effectiveness of the statistical programme?
• Is it possible/meaningful to measure the outcome of statistical information in terms of political and economic actions?
• Are there any examples of such measures?