This is the program for the 2010 Joint Statistical Meetings in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Abstract Details

Activity Number: 368
Type: Roundtables
Date/Time: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 : 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM
Sponsor: Section on Government Statistics
Abstract - #307499
Title: Are Official Statistics at Risk of Losing Their Preeminent Status with Governments and Society?
Author(s): Brian Pink*+
Companies: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Address: , , ,
Keywords: official ; statistics ; risk
Abstract:

Official statisticians face an expanding range of "unofficial" public and private sources of statistics on the economy, society and more recently, the environment. Many providers of "unofficial statistics" are not able, or expected, to meet the same high standards for quality, objectivity, and equity of access that are the hallmarks of official statistics. Some, such as business or industry groups, can be motivated as much by the marketing value of their activities as by the intrinsic value of the data they produce.

Yet politicians and policymakers often view these "unofficial" statistics as cheaper, more timely and more manageable sources than those produced by official statisticians. Whether this growing community of users, who consider "unofficial" statistics to be of similar utility as are "official" statistics, will put official statistics at risk over time, is a mute point.


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