Improving Business Statistics Through Interagency Data Sharing Summary of a Workshop (2006) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Benefits of Data Sharing to the Statistical Agencies
2 The Benefits of Data Sharing to the Statistical Agencies
Pages 13-26
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From page 13... ...
Dennis Fixler delivered the morning's final presentation, an overview of the current role and future potential of data sharing to serve BEA's national income and product accounts work. BUSINESS LIST COMPARISON AND RECONCILIATION Both BLS and the Census Bureau compile business establishment lists -- the Business Establishment List (BEL)
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Within each agency's business list programs, there are numerous tasks for which data sharing could be helpful. For example, both the Census Bureau and BLS require establishment-level data for multiunit firms.
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To inform the business list comparison project, BLS and Census Bureau analysts first evaluated and compared the published aggregate statistics. In order to make a comparison, adjustments were made to take into account differences in the scope and coverage of the BR and the QCEW, most notably to account for the fact that the former includes large segments of the self-employed business population that the latter does not.1 BLS private-sector data needed filtering to remove certain industries that the Census Bureau does not cover, such as crop and animal production, rail transportation, postal services, and private households.
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From page 16... ...
in which the Census Bureau and BLS disagree over single versus multiunit status, and these businesses account for about 21-22 million employees. The project will examine a number of other topics -- the role of nonemployers, the data quality for professional employer organizations and help-supply services, overlap and duplication in the COS and the MWR, and the role of firm identifiers -- that factor into the inconsistencies found in the two business lists.
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by Comparison EIN (in 4.1 .112 .197 .112 List identification 2.5%. ± presentations EINs Business single EINs employer within = 2-2 single- EINs, EINs, Workshop Bureau Bureau EIN match States Microdata 47 multiestablishment, single-establishment, aNear TABLE 2001 for Matched establishment Matched multiestablishment Matched BLS Census establishment Matched BLS Census multiestablishment NOTES: SOURCE:
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From page 18... ...
Finally, BLS, which has an explicit relationship with state unemployment insurance programs, would like to increase consistency in survey processes and economic data development, but this goal is hampered by the fact that the states cannot access key Census Bureau microdata. Hanczaryk concluded that the potential of data sharing to improve business lists and other programs in the U.S.
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discusses the legislative history and lays out limitations, lessons learned, possible means to expand data sharing under current constraints, and steps that might be taken to change the legislation. Their presentation touched on three specific topics related to expanded access -- the need for statutory change, regulatory change, and policy agreements; the importance of linking any expanded access to a specific research or statistical purpose; and the need to make the benefits to the Treasury Department and other agencies clear to policy makers.
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From page 20... ...
Mazur noted that a 1-percentage point change in the overall voluntary compliance rate translates into tens of billions of dollars in tax revenues collected. Thus, there are two important goals in managing tax data: protecting them to maintain as high a compliance rate as possible, and exploiting them effectively and efficiently for other authorized purposes, including statistical uses.
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From page 21... ...
Greenia clarified the differences between statutory and regulatory change: the former requires the passage of a law through Congress and the signature of the president, while the latter requires Treasury Department approval. In order to add new statistical users, or to expand the access of those currently authorized to access federal tax information, Section 6103(j)
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This report shows that the number of disclosures for federal statistical uses, most of which involve demographic data requested by the Census Bureau, is second only to those needed for state tax administration. Greenia noted that policy-oriented research and statistical analyses are important considerations for tax data administration.
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DATA SHARING AND BEA PRODUCTION OF ECONOMIC STATISTICS The extent to which agencies are able to share data for statistical purposes carries direct ramifications for national income accounting. As background for their presentation, Dennis Fixler and Steven Landefeld of the BEA contributed a paper on this topic, which appears as Chapter 7 of this volume.
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The higher Census Bureau number supports an altered view of that sector, and of trends in manufacturing generally, suggesting a different recovery story for the period. More complete data sharing among the agencies would allow researchers to investigate these data discrepancies in a systematic manner.
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The benefits of data sharing can be viewed from either a system-wide perspective or, more narrowly, from the perspective of specific agencies. The system-wide benefits include improved sampling frames, more consistent industry and region classifications, and an increased capacity to resolve anomalies in responses -- all without increased respondent burden.
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From page 26... ...
Fixler noted that, under current constraints, this capability is limited, as restrictions on federal tax information typically do not allow for adequate analysis below the aggregate levels. Fixler stressed that data sharing cannot solve all discrepancies, but it will allow analysts to better understand the source of the differences and provide policy makers with a clearer picture of what is happening in the economy.
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