Call for Paper Announcement for Session 2
18th Roundtable on Business Survey Frames
Paris and Heerlen, 4 June 2004
Dear Colleague,
We are in charge of organising Session 2 - Role of Business Register (BR) System for Co-ordination of Economic Statistics - of the forthcoming meeting of the 18th Roundtable on Business Survey Frames.
The topic is rather large but it deals with a preoccupation of the UN Statistical Commission, which would consider with pleasure the proposal of a set of recommendations by our group.
We have thought that starting the examination of the topic by some kind of inventory would be interesting and fruitful. Firstly, it will make it possible to identify the convergence among the various practices, which may lead to some generally accepted recommendations. Secondly, the divergences, which will be pointed out, may serve as a basis for further discussion, which, in turn, may result in the establishment of a list of good practices. Finally, the problems that are not yet solved in many countries may lead to items for discussion, which will help to improve the management of Business Registers and consequently the statistics on businesses.
Attached to this note is a questionnaire, where we try to cover many issues dealing with the role and place of the BR in Economic Statistics. We would be grateful if you could spare some time to answer the questions and to provide comments on your answer (or on the question, if you find it misleading or not understandable or not in the scope of our research). We expect much from these comments.
You may wish to present in more detail some points regarding your organisation. For this, we have also prepared a call for paper contributions, the content of which will be clearer after you have gone through the questionnaire. If you decide to send a contribution, please advise us at your earliest convenience but no later than the end of July and comply with the dates provided by the organisers for sending a summary and, later, the paper itself.
As to the questionnaire, we would like to work on it in August. We would therefore welcome your reply no later than 19 July 2004.
Thank you for your help.
Hugues Picard and Jean Ritzen
18th Roundtable on Business Survey Frames
Session 2
Role of the Business Register (BR) System
for Co-ordination of Economic Statistics
Call for paper contributions
Contributions are requested on the national organisation of economic statistics, directly or closely linked to the BR for sampling and/or processing administrative files.
It is important to know the nature of, and the transfer procedures for the flow of, information to and from the BR, as well as the rules which govern the BR updating and the acceptance or the rejection of a piece of information when updating.
Another important field of interest is the role of the BR in maintaining continuity and comparability of economic statistics, with emphasis on continuity in time-series, presentation of the level of correct information and subsequent correction of wrong figures.
Please, advise us no later than the end of July 2004 of your intention to contribute a paper for our session. Thank you.
Questionnaire
On the co-ordinating role of the Business Register in Economic Statistics
Please, complete this questionnaire before 19 July 2004
and send it by e-mail to both of us
Hugues Picard (INSEE, France): hugues.picard@insee.fr
Jean Ritzen (CBS, Netherlands): jrtn@cbs.nl
For us, the comments that you provide are more valuable than a straight yes/no or none/seldom/usually answer
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION
Questionnaire
On the co-ordinating role of the Business Register in Economic Statistics
Country:
Organisation, Agency:
Name(s) of the person(s) who completed this questionnaire
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First name |
Name |
Telephone |
e-mail |
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1. Procedures and uses
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1a. Is the BR used to link administrative and statistical units? |
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Never |
Seldom |
Usually | |
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Explanation: The BR operators update the BR from administrative sources, which include legal and/or local legal units. Their work is to use these data to create, or to provide information to facilitate creation of, statistical units such as enterprises, enterprise groups, local units and their related basic characteristics (economic activity, size class, etc.). | |||
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Your Comments: | |||
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1b. Is the statistical Agency involved in the standardisation of administrative entities and variables that are used in the making and updating of the BR? |
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Never |
Seldom |
Usually | |
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Explanation: The statistical Agency may participate in the definition and usage of concepts that are included in administrative systems (for example, how turnover is recorded or how the persons employed are counted, etc.). In some cases (as in France), the statistical Agency may be (generally) the one that defines the boundaries of local legal units. | |||
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Your Comments: | |||
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1c1. Is the BR identification number for administrative units used in some, many or most of the administrative files? |
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Some |
Many |
Most | |
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Explanation: The BR identification number for administrative units may not be the responsibility of the statistical Agency but be managed by the tax Administration. | |||
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Your Comments: | |||
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1c2. Is the BR identification number for statistical units used in the administrative files? |
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Some |
Many |
Most | |
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Explanation: The BR identification number for statistical units is the responsibility of the statistical Agency. | |||
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Your Comments: | |||
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1d1. Are the data in the BR used to follow up a unit over time (the issue of continuity)? |
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Never |
Seldom |
Usually | |
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1d2. Does the BR include a generally used criterion for continuity? |
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No |
Yes | ||
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Explanation: For example, the BR may be used in period on period comparisons to determine which unit is the successor or predecessor of which previous or historical unit. | |||
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Your Comments: | |||
1e1. Is the BR generally used by statisticians as a base for amending data during the processing of administrative files? |
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Never |
Seldom |
Usually | |
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1e2. Does the BR have a role in the process of transforming administrative data into statistical data? |
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Never |
Seldom |
Usually | |
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Explanation: These questions refer to the use of the BR to control the exhaustivity of administrative files (missing units, imputation of missing data) and to standardise into statistical definitions. | |||
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Your Comments: | |||
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1f1. Is the BR generally used by statisticians as a source for making lists of units pertaining to a given grouping (industry, region, etc.)? |
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Never |
Seldom |
Usually | ||
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1f2. Is the BR used for obtaining sample frames in business surveys? |
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Never |
Seldom |
Usually | ||
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1f3. Is there an official procedure for sampling from the BR? |
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No |
Yes | |||
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1f4. Are statisticians obliged to use the BR to obtain their sampling frames for statistical business surveys? |
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No |
Yes | |||
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Explanation: | ||||
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Your Comments: | ||||
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1g1. Is the BR used in enterprise profiling exercises? |
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Never |
Seldom |
Usually | |
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1g2. Is profiling of large enterprises part of the BR updating system? |
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Never |
Seldom |
Usually | |
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Explanation: This refers to use of the BR for structural studies on the enterprise system. | |||
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Your Comments: | |||
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1h. Are economic demographic analyses compiled directly from BR information? |
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No |
Yes | |
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Explanation: This refers to use of the BR for business demography. | ||
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Your Comments: | ||
2. Feedback
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2. Is the BR used as a co-ordinating database, where a small number of variables, in use in most operations, are kept up to date using information supplied by users? |
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Never |
By a small number of users |
By most users | |
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Explanation: The aim of maintaining a BR should be to have a common resource used and updated by all users, according to rules applied by the BR operators. | |||
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Your Comments: Indicate here what are the feedback mechanisms to the BR from surveys and from survey processing of administrative files (updates, quality checks...). | |||
3. Activity code
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3a. Which agency is in charge of assigning the activity code to the units initially? |
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3b. Is the activity code of a statistical unit kept fixed during a month, quarter or year in the BR? |
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Not kept fixed |
Month |
Quarter |
Year | ||
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3c. If it appears, from a survey information, that the BR activity code is wrong, is the code changed in the processing of the survey results or will the wrong code be kept in these results? |
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Not kept |
Kept | ||||
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Explanation: The co-ordination of results (statistical output) of different surveys may conflict with the independent processings of statistical output of the surveys. | |||||
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Your Comments: | |||||
4. Weak areas
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4a. Currently, what are the weak areas and do you plan changes to overcome the difficulties? |
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4b. What are the unsolved problems, now or in the foreseeable future? |
5. Critical issues
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5. What are the three most critical issues in the BR in fulfilling the co-ordinating role in economic statistics? |
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5a. First most critical issue. |
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5b. Second most critical issue. |
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5c. Third most critical issue. |
6. Place of the BR in a model of coherent economic statistics
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6a. Is there now, or are you moving towards, a coherent organisation of business economic statistics in your country? |
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No |
Yes | |
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6b. If yes, provide the main outline of the present or target system, with the indication of (i) the sources (administrative files, surveys, etc.) and how they are combined, and (ii) the common infrastructure and tools. | ||
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Your Comments: | ||
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6c. Provide also a description of the specific role of the BR in this system and its internal and external relationships. | ||
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Your Comments: | ||
6d. Please construct and present, on the next page, a simplified diagram from which one can have a visual view on the role and the place of the BR in the system of economic statistics. Indicate in this the main flows and relationships.