TASK doing more with available data Pedro Ferreira

Why? When? How? What? State of play Structure of my talk Why? When? How? What? State of play

Why? Unit E4 should assist regional policy by providing a wide set of reliable indicators Demand for regional statistics is growing faster than supply: More detailed data More quantity, more indicators Different perspectives on the territory ask for new indicators Timeliness, Relevance, Quality Above all, flexibility

More data Growing demand Eurostat Flexibility More regional indicators Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion More data Growing demand Eurostat Flexibility More regional indicators Different perspective on the territory

Eurostat New indicators take time Only NUTS 2 Statistical burden Lack of human resources

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TASK Eurostat

What? TASK is a project to build a new flexible tool for creating new reliable regional indicators without increasing significantly the statistical burden on respondents new flexible tool new reliable regional indicators reduce statistical burden

New flexible tool Flexible, because NUTS 3 data will be used as building blocks for various types of meaningful aggregates The basic goal of TASK is to have in Eurostat NUTS 3 data on as many topics as possible even if they are unreliable The reliability of an aggregate is higher than the reliability of their components Several aggregates of NUTS 3 data can be relevant for policy purposes

New reliable regional indicators Flexibility will allow to create a broad set of new indicators: Old age dependency ratio in rural areas Youth employment rate in coastal regions Demographic change in mountain regions … Each aggregate will be quality checked before being made available to DG REGIO and the public

Statistical burden TASK is based on the idea that more can be done with data that already exists Available NUTS 3 data Non-published NUTS 3 data Micro data aggregated to NUTS 3 data TASK is in line with the new vision for the next decade on EU statistics: The European approach to statistics could also include the production of statistics by the use of non-published national contributions

How? (1) NUTS 3 regional codes Use available data: all available micro data in house relevant for regional policy Involve thematic units: intensified collaboration between unit E4 and the thematic units to Check the feasibility of aggregating micro data Check the reliability of NUTS 3 aggregates Define disclosure rules Unit E4 will received only the aggregates, not micro data Store NUTS 3 data: create a confidential database where all NUTS 3 data, reliable or not, will be stored

Reliability of Aggregates It is not an easy issue Different and complex sampling designs makes it difficult to come up with a formula to compute the statistical error of an aggregate Some solutions are being explored Using the same thresholds of reliability for NUTS 2 Computing an upper limit for the statistical error Ask for Member-States to provide NUTS 3 coefficient of variation (CV) …

Dissemination Clear disclosure rules should be created Every aggregates should be quality checked against those rules before made available Until then, NUTS 3 data remains confidential to other DGs and the general public

When? May 2010: Analysis of regional labour market micro data End May: Report on quality and disclosure rules June – July: bilateral talks with demography (Unit F1) End September: Working Group Presentation

State of play (1) Member States have already showed their willingness to participate: YES: Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Cyprus*, Latvia, Luxembourg*, Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden EXPECTED TO SUPPLY: Spain, United Kingdom PENDING: Germany, France MIGHT SUPPLY: Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Austria, Finland WILL NOT SUPPLY: Belgium, Poland, Romania, Slovenia UNCLEAR: Denmark, Ireland, Malta, Portugal

State of play (2)

Conclusion TASK is still a experimental project but we are committed to turn it into successful one Ex-Ante evaluation was written and it will be sent to the DM for approval Questions to be discussed Feasibility of TASK Does TASK fit your idea on regional statistics? Thematic Unit support

Thank you for your attention! Any questions?