1 Conference of European Statisticians 11 June 2007 Jan Plovsing National Statistician Director General June 2007 Effectiveness of Statistical Programs.

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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

5

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?