The role of the Business Register in the use of Admin Data for short term statistics

1. Joint UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Meeting of experts on Business Register Paris, 14-15 September 2011 Session 2 Reducing respondent burden – the role of statistical business registers Robin Lorenz/Roland Sturm, Business Register Federal Statistical Office of Germany The role of the Business Register in the use of Admin Data for short term statistics

2. Till beginning of last decade: Stove pipe statistics for different branches Primary surveys with some ten thousand respondents each Challenges of the 1990s: extension of STS to service sectors No political support for additional surveys Response burden prominent topic on the public agenda New political mandate for official statistics: Administrative Data Use Act in 2003 Provided monthly access to AdminData from two sources Short term statistics in Germany – questioning the traditional approach

3. Primary surveys Variables Group of respondents Survey/Reporting period Information demand Survey frequency

4. Admin Data Variables Group of respondents Survey/Reporting period Information potential Survey frequency

5. Employment data Provided monthly by the Federal Employment Office Number of employees subject to social insurance contribution and number of marginal employees File with 3 different reference days at the 15th of each month (t+60, t+90 and t+180) VAT data Provided monthly by the 16 tax authorities of the German states VAT declaration at t+40, delivery to FSO at the 20th of each month (i.e. t+50) Reporting period: VAT > 1.000 €: Quarter (10 % of the turnover) VAT > 7.500 €: Month (90% of the turnover) Testing Admin Data for STS in Germany

6. Use of Admin data for STS: results of testing

7. Reduction of response burden per year

8. Reduction of response burden per year

9. The role of the statistical Business Register 5 survey data of the statistical office register information about survey participation 2 administrative data in the business register core of business register 1 3 4 administrative data already used by the statistical office register unit statistical business register data available in the statistical office

10. Admin Data Editing process for STS Monthly Employ- ment Data Monthly turnover tax files Business Register (BR) Employment Data Base Turnover Data Base Monthly STS – Turnover Extract Annual BRtime slice Monthly STS – Employment Extract Enhanced STS – Employment Extract Enhanced STS – Turnover Extract Specific Admin Data sets for STS Business Rela- ted services (quarterly) Crafts (quarterly) Building instal- lation/completion (quarterly) Wholesale Trade (monthly) Trade of motor vehicles (monthly)

11. Managing of the editing process Linking of units from the two Admin sources: prerequisite for mix models of survey and AdminData use Identification of units belonging to the crafts sector: Prerequisite for AdminDatra use when the target population can not be identified in the Admin Data itself Utilising the Business Register I

12. Reducing deficiencies in the Admin Data Assignment of Activity code: Business Register uses best of different available information Information about VAT groups: Business Register carries out VAT breakdown to single enterprises by a multiple regression model Utilising the Business Register II

13. SBS surveys 2010 2009 time slice BR Time lag Short term statistics and register data t 2010 2011 2011 Permanent updates of adresses, survey information register data 2009 (NACE, crafts, turnover, employment) 2010 provisional

14. Thank you for your attention Roland SturmFederal Statistical Office of Germanyemail: roland.sturm@destatis.de