Improving Business Statistics Through Interagency Data Sharing Summary of a Workshop (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Part I Workshop Summary - 1 Introduction
Part I Workshop Summary - 1 Introduction
Pages 1-12
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Part I Workshop Summary
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However, the decentralized nature of the statistical system also creates challenges to efficient data collection, to containment of respondent burden, and to maintaining consistency of terms and units of measurement. It is these challenges that raise to paramount importance the practice of effective data sharing among the statistical agencies.
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statistical agencies have a long history of data sharing and of efforts to improve those arrangements, CIPSEA has created new opportunities to expand interagency sharing of business data among BEA, the Census Bureau, and BLS.2 The CIPSEA legislation embodies two core goals: to establish uniform cross-agency confidentiality protections and to promote efficiency in the production of the nation's statistics by authorizing limited sharing of busi 2Chapter 5 provides a detailed description of the history of data sharing and data-sharing legislation. In addition, Appendix B provides brief summaries of relevant data-sharing legislation.
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For its regional economic accounts program, BEA has been authorized under other provisions of Section 6103 to review individual tax return records in order to produce tabulations of nonfarm proprietors' income (which are reviewed by the IRS to ensure taxpayer confidentiality) ; these estimates are used, in turn, to distribute BEA's national totals by state and county.3 The above uses notwithstanding, BEA access to federal tax information is still extremely limited relative to that afforded to the Census Bureau.
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Box 1-1 lists acronyms and abbreviations related to interagency business data sharing. WORKSHOP CONTENT The workshop focused on the benefits of data sharing to two groups of stakeholders: the statistical agencies themselves and downstream data users.
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Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Statistics Service
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Each covers about 8 million business establishments with employees, and they are used for similar purposes: to create sampling frames for a wide variety of surveys by the Census Bureau and by other statistical agencies, for benchmarking survey data, for publishing employment and wage data, and for generating aggregates used by other agencies, most notably many of the inputs to the national income and product accounts (Box 1-2)
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indicated that the proposal for companion legislation, which would make complementary changes to the provisions in the "statistical use" section of the IRS code, was endorsed by the Treasury Department and submitted to Congress; however, it expired with the 107th Congress. During the workshop's morning session, representatives from BLS, the Census Bureau, the IRS, and BEA addressed current data-sharing arrangements and the role that data sharing plays in producing federal statistics.
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In contrast, reconciliation of the two business lists involves mainly definitional and classification issues which, workshop presenters seemed to agree, should be as consistent as possible. Carol Corrado, chief of the Industrial Output Section in the FRB Division of Research and Statistics, noted that discrepancies between the Census Bureau and BLS employment by industry figures lessen her confidence in BEA's industry accounts and, in turn, the accuracy of productivity change measures.
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The point was made that, given the confidentiality requirements enacted through CIPSEA, the agencies are now in a better position than ever before to protect the data collected for statistical purposes under a pledge of confidentiality. Landefeld noted the importance of continuing to do a good job of protecting the confidentiality of data, while suggesting incremental changes in data-sharing arrangements, including: · streamlining administrative procedures under CIPSEA; · expediting access to research data centers (keeping statistical uses as top priority)
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12 IMPROVING BUSINESS STATISTICS THROUGH INTERAGENCY DATA SHARING · modifying IRS procedures to promote effective use of administra tive data for statistical uses, either through legislation or changes in the regulations. Landefeld expressed a hope that participants at the workshop would emerge with a renewed sense of the importance of moving forward to responsibly expand interagency data-sharing arrangements.
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