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THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS

John Astin astinja@gmail.com. THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS.

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THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS

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  1. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS Putting statistical concepts and procedures into binding legal acts – reflections on years of experience in harmonization of national consumer price indices (CPIs) in the European Union (EU) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  2. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS • Why this abstruse subject? • document of record • ”how to?” guide for those involved in similar projects – not necessarily in the field of CPIs IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  3. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS Before the 1990s in the EU: CPIs of EU Member States compiled by each country according to its own rules and procedures; Maastricht Treaty of 1991: for monetary union it became necessary to harmonize the methods of calculating the inflation rate so that the results would be comparable between the Member States and aggregable to the EU total. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  4. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS • The EU system of preparing new legislation. • Active participation of national CPI statisticians at dozens of group meetings. • Entirely co-operative venture. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  5. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS Newly prepared regulations – to be legally binding in all Member States, and in the EU they take precedence over national law if there is any conflict of approach. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  6. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS CPIs in most Member States: national laws concerning contracts, tax thresholds etc. which refer to the national CPI. To create a new product (the HICP in the EU and HCPI in COMESA), in line with up-to-date expert views on CPI construction: harmonized index built on foundations of existing national CPIs; macroeconomic indicator of general inflation, to be used by the future European and COMESA central banks. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  7. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS The “output-based” approach: whereby the regulations would describe what Member States must produce, without saying in any detail how they must produce them; The acid test was comparability: countries must demonstrate that their HICPs were produced in ways which were comparable with those of other countries. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  8. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS • How to define “comparable”? • do two national HICPs differ solely on account of differences in price changes or national consumption patterns? • do any differences in the concepts, methods or practices as between the two countries affect the results by less than 0.1%? • If the results of both tests are positive, we can say that the two HICPs are indeed comparable. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  9. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS • THE REGULATIONS HAD TO FOLLOW CERTAIN PROCEDURAL FORMATS. THERE WERE SOME ADVANTAGES. • A preamble, mainly containing so-called “Whereas” clauses • “Whereas” clauses explain why the regulation is needed, and how its content can be justified • Every single Article must be justifiable. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  10. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS • Article listing definitions of words or phrases used in the text. • deciding which words need to be defined? • example: a common statistical word like “sample”. • Words like this need not be defined. International CPI manuals have comprehensive glossaries. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  11. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS • The idea of a classification • Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose – COICOP • Adapted version for EU called “COICOP/HICP” • - Hierarchical classification IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  12. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS What to do when a mistake is made? How to deal with them in legal acts? Mistakes in CPIs can be the result of many causes: > transcription errors resulting in incorrect prices; > computer programs not behaving as intended; > unusual circumstances producing unusual results > and others. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  13. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS Many small mistakes are made which have no effect at all on the published data. These can be corrected without any official announcement. But in other cases the regulations require Member States to admit to mistakes and, at their own initiative, provide the users with all necessary information to assess the level of damage. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  14. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS There are also revisions to data which affect published results. These are not mistakes, but the taking account of changes to data. In the case of CPIs, it is only rarely that fresh data come to light. More frequently, weights are changed; this may require back-casting of published results. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  15. John Astin astinja@gmail.com THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS Legal scrutiny of draft regulations. Lawyers examine the text and make any changes necessary to satisfy the various legal criteria. The results are sent back to the statisticians to ensure that the legal changes have not changed the meaning of any of the statistical requirements. IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

  16. THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATISTICAL PRINCIPLESAND PROCEDURES INTO THE LANGUAGE OF LEGAL ACTS I would be happy to receive any comments or questions from you: John Astin astinja@gmail.com THANK YOU VERY MUCH IAOS Conference 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang, Viet Nam

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