Session IV
Use of administrative data for
data collection
Statistics Belgium
Geneva, 31 October – 2 November
Agenda
• Administrative simplification techniques
• E-government
– XBRL standard
– Architecture
• Main results
• Lessons learned
Administrative
simplification techniques
• Administrative simplification techniques
– Before 2008:
• Gold-plating
– Checking to what extent national surveys are in line with
European statistical demands
• Questioning fewer enterprises
– Reducing sample size by using estimation procedures
(threshold…)
• Changing survey frequency
– Reducing frequency
• Avoiding double questioning
– Information already known to public administrations is not
asked for twice (administrative sources)
» Such information is removed from the questionnaire
– Using authentic sources
Administrative
simplification techniques
• Administrative simplification techniques
– Before 2008:
• Avoiding double questioning:
Positive
Negative
- shorter questionnaire
- Reduced administrative burden
- more time for core business
- Short-lived satisfaction
- Enterprises still have the impression that
Statistics Belgium is asking for the same
information twice
- Filling in a questionnaire is more complex
as the logical structure is lost after
simplification
- More ex-post contacts are needed with
enterprises
- Consistency problems between survey
data and administrative sources
Enterprises
- Fewer complaints about the burden
Statistics
Belgium
• Conclusion
– Variables should be deleted only when entire sections of the survey
form can be deleted.
– Randomly deleting variables from parts of a questionnaire should be
avoided as much as possible.
Administrative
simplification techniques
• 3 questions needed to be answered:
– How can we still delete variables from parts of a
questionnaire when the information is already available in
an administrative source?
– How can we further reduce the administrative burden for
enterprises?
– How can we ensure greater consistency between data
from administrative sources and survey data?
• Solution = E-government
– XBRL standard
– Uploading information directly from the enterprise software
– Pre-filled questionnaires
E-government
• XBRL standard
– Electronic reporting language based on XML
(open standard) for the exchange of business
data through the internet, limiting operations
as much as possible
E-government
• XBRL standard
– Taxonomy
• Xsd schema + 3 xml files (linkbases)
– Xsd schema = type of dictionary in which elements are
defined once
• Linkbase:
–
–
–
–
Label linkbase: 4 languages
Reference linkbase: references
Presentation linkbase: tree structure of documents
Calculation linkbase (formula linkbase): order of operations
– An Instance
• Form with values
E-government
• “Form-based” approach
– Starting point: defining the content of the
questionnaire, related definitions and
explanations
• Mapping needs to already existing
taxonomies
– External (national) consistency (NBB, Ministry
of Finance)
– Internal consistency
E-government
E-government
E-government
• Mapping needs to administrative or statistical
sources
– Consistency between data from different public
administrations or from different statistics
• Investigating whether the information is directly
available within the enterprise without requiring
any transformation
– Uploading information from the software
– Taking into account data types
E-government
• Investigating whether the information is
directly available within the enterprise
without requiring any transformation
– Close cooperation with federations and
software vendors
• Federations:
– what are the most common software tools?
– Promoting XBRL upload
• Software vendors
– Information on software products (content)
– How are data ‘presented’ in the software?
E-government
• On the basis of mapping information, information
from Federations and software vendors, we
create the needed DTS
– through a taxonomy editor or through SAS
procedures
• If it is possible to upload from software systems,
the taxonomy is published on our website + the
technical protocol and versioning
– http://statbel.fgov.be/xbrl/
• Testing phase (about 3 months) for software
vendors before the launch of the survey.
Architecture
• Main functionalities
–
–
–
–
Based on the XBRL standard
Generic (all (non-) dimensional taxonomies)
Uploading instances directly from software systems
Manual encoding in automatically generated web
pages
– Instant validation
• Business rules through XPath (no use of Formula Linkbase)
• The SAS-procedure generates a txt-file with validation rules
– PDF report
– Standard ETL to export data into DWH
– Benchmark reports
Architecture
• Main functionalities
– Pre-filling all data known (mapping)
• Based on the mapping results, items to be pre-filled are
identified
• Pre-filled data are often:
–
–
–
–
Annual accounts (e.g. SBS)
Social Security (e.g. SES, Job vacancy…)
Data from other questionnaires (e.g. Producer Price Index)
Business register (all surveys)
• Pre-filling possible through the creation of a plain file with
data to be pre-filled
– Independent of data source
– Converting into a txt-file through the SAS-procedure
– Architecture does not need to be modified if a new data source
is available
– Not only data from administrative sources are pre-filled, but
also data from other surveys
Architecture
Belgian Companies
WebSurvey XBRL System
User
Management
Interface
Follow up
Interface
DatEnq
(internal users) &
eDatEnq
(external users)
System
FOD Economie Survey
Mailing/Post System
External GUI
- Authorisation
- Manual keying of XBRL
Data
- Uploading XBRL
intances
- Saving XBRL instances
- Printing XBRL instances
XBRL Instances
ValidatIon and
Business Rules Validation
Internal GUI
- Authorisation
- Manual keying XBRL
Data
- Saving XBRL instances
- Printing XBRL instances
Transformation
Batch process
FOD Economie
User 1
FOD Economie
DB systems
Taxonomy & Enterprise
list loading
Business rules loading
Off-Line Forms
Generator
FOD Economie
User 2
Off-Line XBRL Instance
Generator
FOD Economie
Taxonomy
Management
FOD Economie
Business rules,
enterprise data,
translation
management
DB2-PureXML
FOD Economie
XBRL
Taxonomies
Forms
XBRL
Instances
(incomplete)
XBRL
Instances
(complete)
DB with NBB data
NBB
Main results
Changes
For Statistics Belgium
For enterprises
Before 2008
After 2008
Application tailored to one survey
Generic tool for different surveys
Labour-intensive manual task
Flexible process
Avoiding double questioning by deleting items
Avoiding double questioning by pre-filling
questionnaires
Strong reliance on IT
Greater autonomy
Almost no answers through a web form
About 96% of answers through a web form or
upload
Costly process
Cost-effective process
Major inconsistency between survey data and
administrative sources
Consistency between survey data and
administrative sources
Unclear link with administrative sources
Explicit link between the questionnaire and
administrative sources
No upload possible
Uploads possible from the software
Manual process
Pre-filled web form
Ex-post corrections
Online corrections
Lessons learned
• Lessons learned
– Absolutely necessary to share a unique identification
number for enterprises
– Upload: need to block pre-filled data
– Push-on-the-button solution
• Price of the solution
• Stability of the questionnaire
• Real simplification
– Sharing a standard among different administrations
– Consistency checks for pre-filled information
– Promoting the use of a web survey or upload by
sector federations