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The future of statistical offices in the knowledge society

This article discusses the changing role of statistical offices in the knowledge society, emphasizing the need for statistical offices to be seen as knowledge builders and measure their impact on society. It also highlights the challenges faced by statistical offices in the information age and provides recommendations for innovation and relevance.

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The future of statistical offices in the knowledge society

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  1. The future of statistical offices in the knowledge society Enrico Giovannini OECD Chief Statistician June 2007

  2. What is the outcome of statistics? • According to ISIC, official statistics is a non-market service • According to SNA “services are the result of a production activity that change the conditions of the consuming units”, in particular “changes in the mental condition of persons: the producer provides education, information, advice, etc.” • What is the change that the consumption of statistics should produce in the consumer? KNOWLEDGE

  3. Therefore, statistical offices: • Should be considered part of the “knowledge industries” • Should consider themselves “knowledge builders” • Should measure their impact on the society looking at what extent they contribute to societal knowledge • Should expand the boundary of their activity, to cover communication, numeracy, impact assessment, etc.

  4. Some evidence (1) • Although 70% of EU citizens think that it is necessary to know key economic indicators, but: • 50% do not know the GDP growth rate • 30% think to know the official inflation rate, but they do not • 50% trust official statistics • In USA: • 87% of citizens do not know the GDP growth rate • 40% of citizens have never heard about official GDP growth statistics

  5. Some evidence (2)

  6. Are statistical offices too conservative? • There are good reasons to be prudent • But more and more reasons to be innovative, research-oriented, use marketing tools, ecc. Where does the competition take place? • Relevance • Professional independence • Communication

  7. Serious risks of marginalisation for NSOs • Technology changed and now everybody can compile what they call “statistics” (opinion polls, composite indicators, etc.) • Competition on the information market is harder than ever: • Other competitors have very aggressive approaches • People are not able to assess the quality of data • Overwhelming amount of information is disseminated • Perceptions vs. reality • Label “official” not appreciated by new generations • Association with the central government • Trade-off timeliness/accuracy

  8. Conclusions • The “information society” does not necessarily help NSOs to gain role: perceptions vs. reality • It depends on their capacity to be seen as useful, relevant, independent, innovative, trustful • Invest more in R&D • More use of microdata, longitudinal data, etc. • Expand the analytical capacity • Exploit new technologies to engage citizens and unlock statistics: web 2.0 and “wisdom of crowds” • From “statistique” to “sociestique” • Measure the outcome of statistics

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