Industrial Statistics Revisited: From Footnotes to Meta-Information Management

Authors

  • Karl A. Froeschl Department of Statistics and Decision Support Systems University of Vienna
  • Tetsuo Yamada Statistics and Information Networks Branch, UNIDO
  • Roman Kudrna Department of Statistics and Decision Support Systems University of Vienna

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17713/ajs.v31i1.466

Abstract

UNIDO maintains a long tradition in the compilation of international statistics on industrial production and, particularly, has developed a suite of tools and techniques for improving third-party data, mainly supplied directly or indirectly by National Statistics Offices, to
enable and enhance both cross-country and long-term comparability. However, changing IT environments, socio-economic conditions, and customer requirements increasingly challenge established procedures and behaviors. After reviewing (i) the relevance of industrial statistics in general and that of international industrial statistics in particular for the industrial development in the macro economic framework, (ii) the importance of data
comparability on those statistics for accurate and objective analysis with regard to the industrial development, and (iii) UNIDO?s specific efforts in increasing cross-country data comparability, this paper discusses a proposal for an integrated data and data documentation framework aimed at (i) recording all measures taken by UNIDO and (ii) reporting on all residual inconsistencies and deficiencies adversely affecting data comparability and interpretation. The proposal is illustrated by a prototype implementation
using current UNIDO data.

References

M.C. Chen, L. McNamee, and M. Melkanoff. A model of summary data and its application in statistical databases. In M. Rafanelli et al., editors, Proc. Statistical and Scientific Database Management (4th SSDBM), pages 356-372, Berlin, 1989. Springer (LNCS 339).

K.A. Froeschl und T. Yamada. The UNIDO Industrial Statistics Information Exchange Architecture (An Integrated Statistical Data and Data Documentation Framework). Working Paper No. 19, Work Session on Statistical Metadata (METIS), Conference of European Statisticians (Washington D.C., 28–30 November 2000),

UN/ECE, 2000.

R. Kimball. The Data Warehouse Toolkit. Wiley, New York, 1996.

M. Rafanelli und F.L. Ricci. Mefisto: A functional model for statistical entities. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 5(4):670–681, 1993.

M. Silver. The role of footnotes in statistical metainformation systems. Stat. J. UN/ECE, 10(2):153–170, 1993.

UN. International Recommendations for Industrial Statistics, United Nations, Statistical Papers, Series M, No. 48, Rev.1, Par. 7, 1983.

UNIDO. Industrial Statistics 4-digit Level of ISIC-code. CD-ROM edition, UNIDO Statistics and Information Networks Branch, 2001.

Downloads

Published

2016-04-03

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Industrial Statistics Revisited: From Footnotes to Meta-Information Management. (2016). Austrian Journal of Statistics, 31(1), 9-34. https://doi.org/10.17713/ajs.v31i1.466