1. 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

2. 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

3. 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 ff, EU-SILC )

4. 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

5. 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 (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

6. 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

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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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?

12. 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

13. Thank you for your attention!
Please address queries to:
Richard Heuberger
Nadja Lamei
Contact information:
Guglgasse 13, 1110 Vienna
Thank you for your attention!