(AGENPARL) – mer 26 aprile 2023 policy, jointly organised by the Bank of Italy, the European Money and Finance Forum
Survey data have played and continue to play a key role in shaping our understanding of
The Bank of Italy has a long tradition in this area. Following some even earlier experiments,
there have been many changes since those early days, our SHIW is still very much alive;
our annual Survey of Industrial and Service Firms, also still running. Over time, we have
We have always prized our ability to collect pieces of data through surveys that are not
action. When I say ‘the ability to collect’, I do not only refer to legal freedom (or authority),
or to practical means, which are just prerequisites. Even before Zvi Griliches’s famous 1985
– that while economists were increasingly using and even designing surveys,
they were broadly uninterested in, and unaware of, the crucial steps of data collection
of economic analysts at all stages and second, strong investment in statistical human
We are proud that our experience spans decades. However, or perhaps I should say
, vol. 75(2),
Among today’s challenges, one that I believe is common to many surveys around the
world is that response rates have been declining for some time.
Poor response rates
the quality of the data, especially when the propensity to respond is correlated with
phenomena under investigation
This, moreover, is happening just as researchers and policymakers are looking for new,
and unprecedented shocks pose new questions for economic analysis, the need for
alternative sources, such as administrative and unstructured (‘big’) data. The latter often
have clear advantages in terms of timeliness, granularity and number of observations.
On the face of it, there are limits to what statisticians can do with data that are not
collected primarily for statistical purposes. The sample design, when the concept is at
all applicable to such data, is often obscure. Coverage, accuracy, policy relevance and
However, given the phenomenal, ever-growing amount of data that is nowadays available
One promising avenue (among many) is integrating administrative and/or unstructured
data into surveys. Ideally, this would combine the richness and cheapness of the
surveys. There are various possibilities. Administrative data, when they more or less cover
the universe, can be (and are) used to improve the sampling design and correct any
even big unstructured data) can be used to populate certain survey variables, reducing the
need for lengthy questionnaires and thus lessening the response burden. Data integration
Admittedly, exploiting such opportunities is not always an easy task; it may take time,
and it should always be done with care. Integration of surveys with non-traditional data
sources to produce multivariate indicators, such as the ratio of debt to income, may
For instance, Britain’s Labour Force Survey (LFS) response rate halved from 2011 to 2021. The share of households
responding to the US Current Population Survey (CPS) has decreased by about 20 percentage points over the last
The linkage may be subject to respondents’ consent and thus introduce consent bias