ESSnet Admin Data:

usefulness of results

Introductory and general remarks

• ESSnet Admin Data was part of MEETS

Programme and ran for 4 years (2009–2013);

• Focus was mainly on statistical outputs required

by the Short Term Statistics (STS) and Structural

Business Statistics (SBS) Regulations;

• Very ambitious work programme, divided between

8 workpackages;

• True partnership, with at least 3 co-partner NSIs

involved in each work package.

“Official” Aim of the ESSnet Admin Data

“The use of administrative and accounts data for

business statistics has country specific problems

as well as problems common for most of the MSs.

The common problems concern the methods of

quality checking, editing and estimation of

missing variables. One of the ways to help NSIs

solve common problems is to create an ESSnet

where several MSs interested in the topic can

collaborate on the common task, and then

disseminate the results to non-participating

members.”

Specific aims of ESSnet Admin Data

To recommend best practices for dealing with the

identified problems:

• Poor timeliness of admin data for STS;

• SBS definitions differ from those used in

admin and accounts data;

• Some characteristics not available at all;

• No quality measures;

• Errors in admin data.

Membership of the ESSnet Admin Data

• All interested NSIs became co-partners of the

ESSnet Admin Data – UK, PT, NL, LT, IT, EE,

DE and BE;

• Not enough grant finance made available for

SGA 2011 (because 2.5 year period but amount

in Commission’s budget was for 1 year).

• Destatis (Germany) and INE (Portugal) therefore

did not commit to any work in SGA 2011 period.

• Staff in both NSIs continued interest, and in fact

the 2013 SBS workshop was held in Lisbon.

Overview of existing practices (WP1)

• Collection of all relevant literature in one place;

• Searchable database of literature and current

practices of European NSIs;

• Glossary of terms relevant to the use of

administrative data for business statistics;

• Current practices collected using questionnaires

in 2010 and 2012, populated as much as possible

in advance by ESSnet team, to minimise burden

• Results of both reviews have been published on

our Information Centre (essnet.admindata.eu).

EU+EFTA Area: Changed uses of admin sources by type of use and business statistics domain (2011-2012)

10 5 0 5 10 15 20 25

PRODCOM

Annexes I-IV

Annex V

Annex VI

Annex VII

Annex VIII

Annex IX

Building permits

Employment

New orders

Prod. prices/costs

Turnover

SB

SS

TS

DISCONTINUED | CURRENT

Direct/Both direct and indirect (Not yet in use) Direct/Both direct and indirect (Indirect)

Indirect (Not yet in use) Indirect (Direct/Both direct and indirect)

Discontinued (Direct/Both direct and indirect) Discontinued (Indirect)

No. of countries: changed responses to “Why aren’t admin data used?”, by business statistics domain (2011-2012)* * Previous responses in brackets. Update covering 79.4% of 31/12/2010 information

(AD not suitable)

(No relevant AD exist)

(All data from BR)

(No relevant AD exist)

(AD not suitable)

(Method. under dev.)

(AD not suitable)

(Method. under dev.)

(No relevant AD exist)

(Method. under dev.)

(AD not suitable)

(AD not suitable)

(AD not suitable)

0 1 2 3 4 5

PRODCOM

Annexes I-IV

Annex V

Annex VI

Annex VII

Annex VIII

Annex IX

Building permits

Employment

New orders

Prod. prices/costs

Turnover

SBS

STS

(Admin data are currently used) Admin data available but not suitable

Methodology under development No relevant admin data exist

(admin data used)

Admin data are being used

Admin data available but not suitable

Methodology under development

No relevant admin data exist

Influence of WP1 on rest of ESS

• ESSnet Admin Data’s Report to the European

Commission on changes in usage of admin data

during the “life” of the MEETS Programme.

• ESS.VIP Admin Data will start work in 2015;

• Preliminary Task Force has decided that “the

relationship with data owners and the role of the

NSIs in the collection and processing of

administrative data” will form one of the Work

packages of the VIP.

List of basic quality indicators (WP6)

• Quantitative and qualitative quality indicators

- Numeric and descriptive information

• Indicators of output quality, taking input and

process into account

• Select indicators relevant to the output

• Flexibility - Certain parameters will be set by the statistical

producer

• Accompanying examples of how to calculate each indicator - Specific SBS and STS tailored lists available

Influence of WP6 on rest of ESS

• Much interest at international conferences -

Q2010, ISI 2011 and Q2012;

• ESS.VIP Admin Data will start work in 2015;

• Preliminary Task Force has decided that the

work done by WP6 on quality indicators will be

starting point for another of the VIP’s Work

packages;

• VIP will extend WP6’s recommendations for

business statistics to all other areas of

European statistics.

SBS v. IFRS definitions (WP7)

• Items in businesses’ Balance Sheets and Profit

and Loss accounts look like SBS variables, but

are not exactly the same;

• Compared the most important 21 SBS definitions

with those in International Accounting Standards;

• Then real accounts data were compared with

SBS survey data, to establish whether the

definitional differences mattered in practice;

• If the accounts items were unsuitable for SBS,

WP3 team members used admin data to try to

estimate the variables in other ways.

WP7’s main recommendations

• Revenue might be used for the SBS variable

Turnover, as discrepancies arising from

differences between IAS/IFRS and SBS

requirements are small (this excludes the impact

of excise duty).

• Definition of Turnover should be amended to

exclude excise duties;

• Data from the Notes to companies’ Financial

Statements should be made available to NSIs in a

useable format (e.g. using IFRS’s xbrl Taxonomy).

Influence of WP7 on rest of ESS

• WP3 (definitions) of the MEETS ESSnet on

Consistency used these recommendations as

a starting point for its work;

• Task Force on Accounting and Statistics met in

May 2013 and decided that its work had been

carried out by the ESSnet Admin Data. The

Task Force has therefore been disbanded.

Estimating for “missing” variables (WP3)

• It is necessary to have very well correlated admin variables in order to estimate accurately for the whole population;

• Various methods have been shown to give acceptable estimates for a range of SBS variables for the smaller businesses (retaining a survey for larger businesses);

• It may not be possible to estimate all SBS variables from admin data, e.g. there were no acceptable methods found for Payments for agency workers.

15

Timeliness issues for STS (WP4)

• Administrative data are incomplete at STS delivery

dates, because the admin data (mainly VAT and

social security) are due later.

• We therefore have to estimate the missing parts,

in order to determine the growth rates of turnover

and employment .

• Main recommendation is to retain a monthly

survey of the largest businesses; use quarterly

admin data trends to estimate for small

businesses on a monthly basis, and benchmark

monthly estimates to quarterly admin data.

Communication with other NSIs

• Dissemination strategy – Information Centre;

• Plan of workshops and training events – BSDG

members consulted in 2010;

• 5 workshops held;

• No training events because no grant provided;

• Several presentations to STS and SBS working

groups and BSDG;

• International conferences.

Workshops

• We have held a total of 5 workshops, starting in

March 2010 with a seminar in Rome, at which

we ensured that we were fully aware of the

current state of admin data practices across

Europe.

• We have recently hosted 2 large-scale

workshops – one for STS (April 2012 in Cardiff)

and one for SBS (March 2013 in Lisbon), with

over 70 attendees each – and one smaller STS

updating workshop (May 2013 in Tallinn).

Information Centre - essnet.admindata.eu

Advanced search options - possibility to search

within deliverables, reference library articles,

glossary items etc.

Project-wide Glossary which defines how various

terms, related to the use of administrative data and

accounts data, should be used within the context of

the Admin Data ESSnet (Wiki functionality).

Database of existing practices - user-friendly

application database with up-to-date data and user

interface (for online queries).

Reference library - repository of 520 items.

Some IC „pics“ IC search engine Reference library-520 items

DB-overview of existing practices Glossary

Top 25 IC user countries, in the last year

• 20 May 2012 to 19 May 2013

• 4,427 visits from 95 countries

Sequence Country Visits

1. United Kingdom 846

2. Italy 720

3. Belgium 259

4. Estonia 250

5. Netherlands 233

6. Poland 142

7. Germany 131

8. Lithuania 122

9. Bulgaria 112

10. Austria 109

11. Finland 108

12. New Zealand 104

13. Cyprus 88

14. Hungary 84

15. Switzerland 80

16. Sweden 67

17. Slovakia 61

18. Spain 55

19. Romania 55

20. Latvia 52

21. United States 52

22. Croatia 48

23. Turkey 47

24. Slovenia 46

25. Luxembourg 39

Thank you for your attention … any questions?