Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe - Volume 11, issue 4

Authors: The Bureau of the Conference of European Statisticians

Article Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1994-11401

Citation: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 229-240, 1994

Authors: Vogel, Joachim

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The present integration and future enlargement of the European Union creates a new demand for comparative social statistics, particularly on general living conditions in member countries, as well as their development. The Maastricht Agreement as well as the two white papers on European Social Policy, on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment respectively, address a broad area of policy issues concerning living conditions at a micro-level. Key issues as convergence, cohesion, integration, cooperation and social dialogue are addressed, as well as social exclusion, poverty, equal opportunities, social conflict, racism and segregation. A large set of social concerns is discussed in these documents, …such as employment, minimum standards, health, safety at work, housing and social security. These documents also underline the distributional aspects of living conditions, highligtening gender, family, generations, disablility, old age, race, immigrants, the regions, and religion. These documents distinctly relate to the legitimative fundamentals of European integration: the growth of welfare in all member states, the levelling of disparities of living conditions between member states, and the normative role of European integration for political action at national level. These articulated user demands, as well as a generally felt need for better international social statistics calls for a strengthening of the statistical infrastructure along the lines of the social indicator tradition, as it already is established on the national level in several European countries. The keyword better statistics stands for an integrated indicator system, improved data quality, comprehensiveness, flexible data collection systems, timeliness, cost-effectivess, and international and regional coverage. There is an urgent need for technical coordination of the national programs before these become too diversified to permit proper comparative social indicator statistics. In this paper the present status of the social indicator movement is discussed, as well as the routes it offers to enhanced international comparability. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1994-11402

Citation: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 241-260, 1994

Authors: Ringqvist, Margareta

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The need for social statistics is huge and growing, but the different approaches in use today are not always consistent. In many cases the statistics are developed separately from each other, without common definitions or other efforts at coordination. This makes it difficult for users to understand and analyse the results. The paper attempts to outline an “integrated system” of social statistics. Its purpose is to show where there exist bridges between the different approaches and where links are missing. The paper identifies the following five approaches; current sector statistics, social indicators, microsimulation, social accounts and studies of exposed …groups. Current social statistics and social indicators are ordinary statistics based on primary data, while studies of exposed groups and microsimulations as well as social accounts represent adaptations and analyses of these regular statistics. It is difficult to accord priorities to the different categories, as they answer different needs and complement one another. Nor do national and international priorities always coincide. However, it could be argued, in an international perspective, that top priority should be given to new indicator statistics and statistics about exposed groups. With increasing social differences appearing in many parts of the industrialised world, the demands from political decision-makers for such data seem to be the most pressing. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1994-11403

Citation: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 261-271, 1994

Authors: Tengblad, Åke

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This report describes the progress made in Sweden in the field of social accounting matrices (SAM). The SAM, which now exists in a preliminary version for 1991, is described in terms of general layout, classifications, data sources and data quality and reconciliation problems. The SAM exists in a detailed version containing 109 rows and columns but a condensed version is also given and shown in the Appendix. The data sources specifically described are the annual Survey of Distribution of Income and the 1992 Family Expenditure Survey. The special solution applied in the Swedish National Accounts to the classification of value …added and its components is also dealt with. The problems of data quality and in reconciling the micro-data from the Surveys mentioned to the macro-data of the National Accounts seems to be a major problem in SAM and the present position in the Swedish System is also described. An outline concerning the possibilities of further developing SAMs in Sweden is presented as well. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1994-11404

Citation: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 273-295, 1994

Authors: Longva, Svein

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The article discusses in some detail what is meant by living conditions and how we measure them. The resource approach based on a statistical mapping of objective measures, which has been central to the Nordic welfare research, is emphasized. However, living conditions are not only the results of the resources of each individual but of the mechanisms which are effective in the different areas where the available resources are put to use. Access to resources and access to arenas are thus the conceptual framework for extending the set of statistics. The article ends by a presentation of examples of social …indicators. The measurement of income distribution is used as the main example to illustrate the relationship between economic and social statistics, and to stress the importance of the macro-micro link and some of the conceptual problems involved when establishing an operational measure. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1994-11405

Citation: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 297-319, 1994

Authors: van Tuinen, Henk K. | Altena, Jan Willem | Imbens, Hanneke C.M.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Every source (household surveys, establishment surveys, registers) has its own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, statistics from different sources will contradict each other. But coherence is a prerequisite for user-friendliness. This implies that the development of integrated social statistics deserves top priority. As shown by some examples of Statistics Netherlands, integrated social statistics are not too costly, they are flexible and can be produced very timely. Although there is a great challenge to create broad systems of multidimensional social statistics, it is of utmost importance to develop coherent social statistics step by step, starting by doing first things first like …the production of relatively simple coherent basic data. Concepts used in statistics must be as close as possible to the intuitive concepts held by users. New techniques make the further development of social statistics very promising. For example, automation of the surveying process creates new possibilities in establishment surveys to capture more data at lower costs and with a lower response burden. In combination with the use of register data the costs and the response burden can be lowered further substantially. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1994-11406

Citation: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 321-356, 1994

Article Type: Calendar

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1994-11407

Citation: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 357-359, 1994

Article Type: Calendar

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1994-11408

Citation: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 361-362, 1994

Article Type: Other

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1994-11409

Citation: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 363-364, 1994