Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency Sixth Edition (2017) / Chapter Skim
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Practice 3: Use of Multiple Data Sources for Statistics That Meet User Needs
Practice 3: Use of Multiple Data Sources for Statistics That Meet User Needs
Pages 69-80
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From page 69... ...
Two changes in policy and outlook can help statistical agencies foster the needed spirit of innovation. The first is to focus on the desired outputs of their programs by defining their primary business as that of providing relevant, accurate, and timely statistics obtained in a cost-effective manner.
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From page 70... ...
ROLES FOR SURVEYS Many current statistical programs rely on well-established probability sampling methods that draw representative samples of a population, such as household members or business establishments, interview the sample units, and produce estimates that account for known errors in population coverage and missing data and have a quantifiable level of uncertainty from sampling variability. Box III.1 provides a brief history of probability sampling for federal statistics and lists examples of long-running federal surveys.
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From page 71... ...
Survey estimates (e.g., unemployment rates produced from the predecessor to the Current Population Survey in the early 1940s) quickly gained widespread public and policy acceptance.
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From page 72... ...
Census Bureau. BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics; BJS, Bureau of Justice Statistics; EIA, Energy Information Administration; ERS, Economic Research Service; NASS, National Agricultural Statistics Service; NCES, National Center for Education Statistics; NCHS, National Center for Health Statistics; NCSES, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; PD&R, Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S.
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From page 73... ...
; and (2) matches of employer and employee survey data with state employment security agency records in the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program to analyze business and employment dynamics (see National Research Council, 2007a)
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From page 74... ...
.49 ROLES FOR NONTRADITIONAL DATA SOURCES Statistical agencies are currently exploring the use of data sources, other than surveys and administrative records, that hold promise to improve the 49 Statistics Canada, the national Canadian statistical agency, which has full access to administrative datasets, asks respondents to the Canadian Income Survey (and its predecessor) for permission to use income tax records in place of questions: see http://www23.statcan.gc.
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From page 75... ...
For example, people who post items to sell on an auction website do not comprise any specified population. Another challenge of nontraditional data is that statistical agencies lack control over the consistency over time or among vendors or sites, so that deciding to rely heavily on such data sources carries high risks of compromising key time series if a vendor or site ceases operation or there are marked changes in data content or population coverage.
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From page 76... ...
Sales and Transactions Data Aggregators BEA and the Census Bureau's Economic Directorate are conducting pilot projects on the use of third-party aggregators of scanned store sales and credit card transactions to improve monthly retail trade estimates. These data are currently provided by the Monthly Retail Trade Survey, which has experienced significant declines in response rates.
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From page 77... ...
Currently, the National Health Interview Survey of NCHS serves this function for the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Similarly, the American Community Survey serves this function for the National Survey of College Graduates that the Census Bureau conducts for the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (see National Research Council, 2008b)
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From page 78... ...
. The United States participates in the United Nations Global Working Group on Big Data for Official Statistics, established in 2014.54 The bipartisan 15-member commission created by the Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act of 2016 will report in September 2017 on such topics as how to integrate administrative and survey data and make them available for research and evaluation while protecting privacy and confidentiality; how data infrastructure, database security, and statistical protocols should be modified toward these ends; and whether a federal clearinghouse should be created for government survey and administrative data.55 In moving to expand their use of administrative records or other nontraditional data sources together with surveys, statistical agencies should consider at least six factors in assessing the benefits and costs: (1)
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From page 79... ...
recommended stepped-up efforts led by the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy to coordinate research to evaluate different nontraditional data sources, develop appropriate estimation methods based on combining data, develop quality metrics for combined estimates, implement stateof-the-art data privacy protection techniques, and similar matters (see Practice 13)
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