Title: The Quality of Official Statistical Systems and the Quality of Official Data on the Economy
Abstract: This paper first describes the function of Official Statistical Systems and their mission to disseminate data on economic and other issues. Official data are used by politicians, the media, research institutes, and the public for making decisions and reports, and for research and data mining. Morgenstern criticized the Accuracy of Economic Observations decades ago. Meanwhile, the UN, OECD, World Bank, IMF, and the EU have elaborated standardized frameworks for managing Statistical Systems and for improving the Quality of Organizations, Processes, Statistical Output and the Accounting Systems. However, Guvenen, Koyuncugil, Altmiks et al. express their doubts on the quality of official data. Official reports did neither indicate nor predict the world economic crisis 2008 and after. The paper discusses distortion of information due to “false response”, “excessive credit financing”, missing data on the “informal economy” and on “hidden money”, and the “relevance” of official data neglecting “liquidity”. The conclusion is that users of official economic data should take more care on “accuracy” and “relevance”. Research is needed to estimate the unknown bias of economic data. The needs of S+M companies, investors, the markets are to be covered more.
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot