Richard Heuberger, Nadja Lamei Statistics Austria Paris, 10th December 2015 Using Register Data in Income Statistics in the Austrian EU-SILC: Quality and Timeliness Issues

Overview Use of Register Data in EU-SILC in Austria Statistical production and timeliness Use of Register Data: Quality and timeliness Bottlenecks, constraints, questions Conclusions

Use of Register Data in EU-SILC in Austria Test 2003  Register data use hardly possible Tests with linking by name and social security No, only few target var. could be built Legal issues: anonymised link Use of Register data: Sampling, Weighting Use of Register data: Income, Back-calculation (EU-SILC 2012ff, EU-SILC 2008-2011)

Statistical production and timeliness Generic Statistical Business Process Model as a framework (UNECE, GSBPM, V5.0) In the following few slides we describe how the change towards the use of register data affected the statistical data production process and where timeliness issues are central. For a framework of this process we use the GSBPM and its phases

Statistical production: changes due to register data Legal framework to fullfill needs (1): Regulation on EU and on national level: ‘Income and living conditions statistics regulation (ELStV)’ in Austria (since 2010): Statistics Austria is encouraged to fill income variables for EU-SILC from existing administrative records in order to decrease respondent burden and to increase data quality. Timeliness: New regulation affected EU-SILC 2012 in its total workflow (2.6), questionnaire (3.1), data editing process and weighting (5); also heavy need to analyse and explain changes (6) > data of that year sent in Sept. 2013 (7) > Since then serious speed up of the process: SILC 2013 sent in May 2014 SILC 2014 sent in Jan 2015 SILC 2015 and onwards Jan N+1

Statistical production: timeline Dec N-1 Oct. - Nov N Oct. N-1 - Jan N Sept. N Feb-July N Nov N- Jan N+1 Aug-Sept N Nov - Dec N Jan-June N: Data Delivery to Eurostat Jan N+1 First publication Apr. N+1 (indicators, tables) Detailed reports and articels June N+1 + following 6 months Done Dec N Done, only small changes and updates Sept. N-1 -Jan N But: New System of Data Collection (incl. CAWI) from 2017? Basically done But: New needs and Legal Revision… Dec N-JanN+1 Jan N+1

Statistical production and timeliness Use of register data for …. Collection Sampling Processing Integration of data Calculation of weights Analysis Validation

Statistical production and timeliness Annual requirements for Register Data (year T) August/September: income data for annual income T-1 Some of these data take some time (tax data) November: register information weighting T-1 & T No annual information of T October: Sampling frame (31/10)  Sampling T+1 Status: as of 3. Quarter

Use of Register Data: Quality and timeliness Use of register data for the sampling Fieldwork starts beginning of February Requires information of selected households with personal identification number (PIN/bPK) Register: Central residence register (ZMR): updated quarterly  31st October key date When additional information is needed (oversampling) Link of residence register with additional administrative sources

Use of Register Data: Quality and timeliness Processing of data: integration of data for data production: income information and auxiliary information Requirement: information about reference year Processing, delivery takes time Regulation forsees no specific date! Coordination & communication within Statistics and with other institutions Data production starts in Autumn Automatised process of data delivery? NO, not so far… Auxiliary information e.g. needed for net/gross-gross/net conversion Weighting: How much additional information from register can be / should be integrated? Use of first 3 quarters for calibration instead of full information for the year

Bottlenecks, constraints, questions Dependent on other institutions (no automatised delivery) Dependent on other departments at Statistics Austria consider the work load, planning, coordination Additional controls would be reasonable Closer look on production of register data Effect of sampling, missing PINs, extreme values, integration into imputation procedures, … Register data integration within Statistics Austria data warehouse?

Conclusions Integration of Register Data as ongoing project EU-SILC and Statistics Austria Data quality, availability is dependent on external factors Requires cooperation, information Further quickening would increase workload and pressure on quality Quality is the basis of trust in EU-SILC Tests to build total HH income also for other surveys

Thank you for your attention! Please address queries to: Richard Heuberger Richard.heuberger@statistik.gv.at Nadja Lamei Nadja.lamei@statistik.gv.at Contact information: Guglgasse 13, 1110 Vienna Thank you for your attention!