European Statistical System Network / Admin Data ESSnet, Work Package 1
Overview of MSs’ Existing Practices in the Uses of Administrative Data for Business Statistics
Deliverable 1.3
Admin Data Glossary.
Definitions adopted within the Admin Data ESSnet for certain terms related to the use of administrative data for producing business statistics / First issue
Reference period / SGA 2010
(29/4/2010 to 30/6/2011)
Date of delivery / 31/3/2011
Dissemination level / Public
(Required approval of the Coordinating Group)
WP1 Co-partners / Istat, Italy
LUIGI COSTANZO (WP leader), GRAZIA DI BELLA,
PATRIZIA LEONARDI/MASSIMO VIGNOLA
CBS, Netherlands
INE, Portugal
HUMBERTO J. PEREIRA, SOFIA RODRIGUES
ONS, United Kingdom
ELIZABETH HARGREAVES, ALISON PRITCHARD
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Contents
1. Background information 3
1.1 The need for a glossary and the mandate of Work Package 1 3
1.2 The planning phase and the definition of the scope 4
1.3 The implementation of the Glossary 6
1.4 The definitions produced 7
1.4.1 What has been done, case by case 7
1.4.2 Logical relationships between definitions 10
2. Definitions 13
ACCOUNTS DATA 14
ADMINISTRATIVE DATA / Admin Data 14
ADMINISTRATIVE DATA HOLDER / Admin Data Holder 15
ADMINISTRATIVE DATA PROVIDER / Admin Data Provider 15
ADMINISTRATIVE DATASET 16
ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATION 16
ADMINISTRATIVE SOURCE / Admin Source 17
ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT 19
BALANCE SHEET 19
FOURTH DIRECTIVE of the Council on the annual accounts of certain types of companies 20
IDENTIFICATION VARIABLES 21
INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS (IFRS) 22
ITEM NON-RESPONSE / Missing item / Missing value 23
LEGAL BASIS of the use of administrative data for statistical purposes 23
PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT 24
REGISTER 24
RIGHT TO QUERY of an NSI 25
STATISTICAL VARIABLES 26
TARGET POPULATION 27
UNIT NON-RESPONSE / Missing unit 28
Annex: Glossary Planning Document (Milestone 1.5) 29
1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1.1 The need for a glossary and the mandate of Work Package 1
Even before the Admin Data ESSnet was officially launched – during its preparation stages – it became evident that one of the main issues to face when approaching administrative data in a broad perspective, encompassing a wide range of countries and different domains of statistical production, is a lack of shared and consolidated definitions. Even fundamental terms like “administrative data” or “administrative source” are commonly used with different meanings in different contexts and, quite often, such differences are not just a matter of wording. Some intend, for example, “administrative data” as data collected (for any purpose) by the Public administration, while others define it – more widely – as data collected (no matter by whom) other than for statistical purposes. Ambiguities like this clearly represent an obstacle to the exchange of knowledge on this topic and these need to be resolved, especially in a project based on such exchanges.
Therefore, it seemed necessary to include, among the activities of the Admin Data ESSnet, the production of a glossary of the main terms related to the use of administrative and accounts data for business statistics, in order to establish a common language within the Project, and this task – being considered complementary to the production of the Overview of existing practices – was assigned to Work Package 1 (WP1).
It was established, in particular, that WP1 would submit proposals for definitions to be adopted within the Admin Data ESSnet based on a comparative study of existing glossaries, and that such definitions – once approved by the Admin Data ESSnet Coordination Group – would be published in two ways:
1. By feeding an on-line Glossary, implemented within the Admin Data ESSnet Information Centre (http://essnet.admindata.eu/Glossary/List);
2. In the form of reports documenting the comparative study and providing commentaries to the definitions produced.
The on-line Glossary, conceived as a supporting tool for the users of the Information Centre, was developed by Work Package 8 and is being fed by WP1. For the remainder of the Project (which will end in June 2013), WP1 will continue to enrich it, by producing further definitions on its own and by coordinating possible contributions from the other Work Packages.
This report covers a first set of terms, which were defined by WP1 under the current SGA (April 2010-June 2011), either on its own initiative or upon the request of other Work Packages. These definitions were discussed and approved in two meetings of the Coordination Group, in Lisbon (November 2010) and Brussels (March 2011). A second and final issue, covering further terms, is expected before the closing of the Project, in order to complete the Admin Data Glossary.
1.2 The planning phase and the definition of the scope
Although it was planned to begin work on the Glossary under SGA 2010, the WP1 carried out some preparatory work during SGA 2009[1], following a request to do so at the kick-off meeting of the ESSnet (London, September 2009). An initial list of potentially relevant terms, with the related definitions collected from several sources (the on-line glossaries of OECD and the UN Statistics Division, plus various EU regulations and manuals), was compiled to get a first screening of the problems on the ground and to identify what were the most suitable sources of reference.
That list served as a basis for the internal debate about the scope of the Glossary, whose results were condensed into the Glossary Planning Document (Annex to this report), which was presented at the Coordination Group meeting of Tallinn (September 2010), and then approved[2]. This document set out the criteria for including/excluding terms, the method to be adopted to produce the definitions, and a schedule of the activities planned in order to achieve the delivery of the Glossary.
It was established that “the WP1 glossary will focus on terms more specifically related to the use of administrative data, seeking to resolve ambiguities in order to establish a common language within the ESSnet”. It was therefore recommended:
– To give priority “to the more general terms, such as Administrative source and Register”;
– “To include a limited number of terms related to the legal context in which admin data is used”, considering only those “of very general meaning and use”;
– To exclude “general statistical terms (such as data or metadata) and terms which are more relevant but are not exclusively related to the use of admin data (such as imputation or macro-editing)”.
As regards the method, it was confirmed that – whenever a definition was already provided by the sources of reference – the recommendations would be based on a comparative study of the existing definitions. Original definitions would be proposed only for terms not covered by the sources of reference.
Four main sources of reference were identified. It was agreed, however, to consider also other acknowledged sources whenever a term was not covered by the main ones, before proposing an original definition. The main sources are:
– Eurostat’s Concepts and Definitions Database (CODED)[3],
– The OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms[4],
– The UNdata Glossary, produced by the UN Statistics Division[5],
– The Metadata Common Vocabulary produced within the SDMX initiative[6].
In relation to the various possible cases, the tasks of the WP1 were defined as follows:
Table 1. Tasks of the WP1 relating to the Glossary, case by case
FOR TERMS ALREADY DEFINED BY THE SOURCES OF REFERENCE... / FOR TERMS NOT DEFINED BY THE SOURCES OF REFERENCE…... in ways substantially concordant … / ... in ways substantially not concordant… / … in ways not relevant to the scope of the Admin Data Glossary…
â / â / â / â
… to recommend the adoption of the existing definition (as it is or, where deemed necessary, adapted) / … to recommend the adoption of one of the existing definitions (as it is or, where deemed necessary, adapted) / … to propose new definitions for adoption
1.3 The implementation of the Glossary
The first step into the actual implementation of the Glossary consisted in gathering a wider set of “candidate terms” by reviewing a variety of sources, including also:
– The instruments used by the WP1 to collect information for the Overview of existing practices[7];
– The “Problem statements” of the ten Work Packages – short descriptions of each Work Package’s tasks, reported in the Framework Partnership Agreement of the Admin Data ESSnet.
About one hundred terms were examined (including those on the initial list) by reviewing their definitions in the sources of reference, taking into account the criteria of priority and relevance stated above. As stated in the Glossary Planning Document, this analysis (necessarily not exhaustive) was aimed at two main objectives, i.e. at identifying:
– “Discrepancies or inconsistencies which need to be resolved (i.e. key-terms which are defined differently by different sources)”, and
– “Potential gaps which need to be filled (i.e. terms of common use whose definitions are poor or lacking)”.
It must be noted, however, that some of the definitions required by the other Work Packages were actually aimed at rather more limited – but equally valid – objectives:
– Providing the users of the Information Centre with explanations of some terms of frequent use which are potentially unfamiliar to the general public (such as Fourth Directive or IFRS);
– Clarifying the specific meaning with which some terms of general use (such as accounts data or statistical variable) are understood within this Project.
In summary, we tried to identify those terms for which adopting a common definition seemed more urgent, taking into account both the general objectives of WP1 (resolving controversial terms and providing lacking definitions) and the particular needs expressed by the other Work Packages.
Such process was finalised by producing a list of twenty-nine terms (Table 2), which were submitted to the Coordination Group at the meeting of Lisbon (November 2010) and there approved. Twenty of these terms were presented as “recommended for the inclusion” in the Glossary, and nine as “terms that might be useful to include”. The definitions of the twenty priority terms are those published in this report, while the other terms form the core of an open list, to be integrated with new entries during the lifetime of the Admin Data ESSnet. The same procedure followed to produce the first set of definitions will be then replicated, so completing the Admin Data Glossary before the end of the Project.
Table 2. List of terms proposed for inclusion in the Glossary
TERMS DEFINED (covered by this report) / TERMS TO BE DEFINED (open list)1. Accounts Data
2. Administrative Data
3. Administrative Data Holder
4. Administrative Data Provider
5. Administrative Dataset
6. Administrative Regulation
7. Administrative Source
8. Administrative Unit
9. Balance Sheet
10. Fourth Directive (of the EC on the annual accounts of certain types of companies)
11. Identification Variables
12. International Financial Reporting Standards
13. Item Non-response
14. Legal Basis
15. Profit and Loss Account
16. Register
17. Right to Query (of a NSI)
18. Statistical Variables
19. Target Population
20. Unit Non-response / 21. Accounting Data
22. Administrative Survey
23. Commercial Data
24. Commercial Data Holder
25. Commercial Data Provider
26. Commercial Data Source
27. Financial Statement
28. Key Variables
29. Reference Population [of an administrative source]
1.4 The definitions produced
1.4.1 What has been done, case by case
The actual distribution of the definitions produced across the four cases illustrated in Table 1 is shown in Table 3. In the various sources examined, out of the twenty terms considered:
– Seven terms (all concerning accounts data or belonging to general statistical terminology) were found to be defined concordantly. In this case, the definitions produced are simple adaptations, in view of the scope of the Glossary;
– Four terms (including Administrative data and Administrative source) were found to be defined not concordantly. In this case, the definitions produced were the result of a choice, made in order to avoid ambiguity in the use of these terms within the Admin Data ESSnet;
– Three terms were found to be defined with a meaning not relevant to the scope of this Glossary. The definitions of Accounts data and Statistical variable were required just to specify to what these terms refer within this Project, whereas the existing sources (correctly) define them from a general point of view. For Administrative unit, instead, it seemed necessary to acknowledge the meaning with which this term is commonly used in relation to admin data, which is not that reported by the major glossaries;
– Six terms, finally, were found to be missing from all of the sources of reference. For these terms, as well as for the previous three, original definitions have been produced by the WP1.
Table 3. Cases that occurred in relation to the terms defined and sources used for the proposed definitions
CASES / TERMS / SOURCE /Terms already defined by the sources of reference… / … in ways substantially concordant / Balance Sheet / Adapted from CODED (term extension: SNA)
Fourth Directive / Adapted from Encyclopedia.com
Identification Variables / Adapted from CODED (term extension: statistical methodologies) / OECD
International Financial Reporting Standards / Adapted from Wikipedia / IFRS Foundation website
Item Non-response / Adapted from The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms
Profit and Loss Account / Adapted from Wikipedia
Target Population / Adapted from OECD / SDMX / CODED (term extension: statistical concept) / UNdata
… in ways substantially not concordant / Administrative Data / Adapted from SDMX / CODED (term extension: statistical concept) / UNdata
Administrative Source / SDMX / CODED (term extension: statistical concept) / UNdata
Register / Adapted from CODED (term extension: general concept)
Unit Non-response / Adapted from CODED (term extension: OECD - Business tendency survey)
… in ways not relevant to the scope of the Glossary / Statistical Variables / Admin Data ESSnet, WP1
Accounts Data
Administrative Unit
Terms not defined by the sources of reference / Administrative Data Holder
Administrative Data Provider
Administrative Dataset
Administrative Regulation
Legal Basis
Right to Query
1.4.2 Logical relationships between definitions