Issues about using administrative data in a National Statistics Office
by
Glenys Bishop
Australian Bureau of Statistics

Under the new taxation system, there is an annual census of businesses in the form of Business Activity Statements (BAS) returned to the Australian Taxation Office, although a substantial number of businesses return quarterly or monthly statements. The data collected on these statements is made available to the Australian Bureau of Statistics each month. Several ways of using the data have been considered corporately, such as redesigning business surveys by replacing our existing size stratification with a new one based on BAS variables. Another was to improve our estimation procedures by introducing the use of generalised regression estimation with BAS variables as auxiliaries. The third was to use BAS data as a substitute for currently collected survey data. The issues considered in determining whether and how to use administrative data were the timeliness of the data, the quality of the data and whether using the data would effect gains in terms of reduced sample size, reduced provider load and reduced survey costs. I will discuss these issues in terms of BAS data but similar issues are being faced by other National Statistical Organisations throughout the world.

Date received: April 22, 2002