1. Combining survey and administrative data to create a new input data file for National Accounts processes Shaun McLaughlin Central Statistics Office, Ireland IAOS Conference 2014 Presented by Christopher Sibley

2. Outline of Presentation • Background • Existing National Accounts environment • IT Project • Enterprise File • Sources • Creation of file • Problems encountered • Enterprise file within the new IT system • Benefits and future plans

3. Background • Existing National Accounts Environment • GDP produced using Income and Expenditure approaches • Main annual publication – National Income and Expenditure (NIE) • Sector Accounts, Regional, Supply&Use, Input/Output, Production approach all published later

4. Background • Existing National Accounts Environment • Inconsistencies between different approaches unavoidable • Inconsistencies due to different sources for similar data can be minimised • Large Cases Unit (LCU) to ensure consistency for largest companies in the country.

5. Background • Existing National Accounts Environment • Processing done using SAS software and Excel • Other CSO Systems • Central Business Register (CBR) • Data Management System (DMS)

6. Background • New National Accounts IT System

7. Background • New National Accounts IT System • Use of the Data Capture application of DMS to centrally store input data will improve integration of all processes • Further step is to combine several similar data sources into a single file – ‘Enterprise file’

8. Enterprise file • Administrative sources • Corporation Tax • Income Tax (self-employed) • P35 file (social insurance & other labour costs) • High coverage across entire economy

9. Enterprise file • CSO Survey sources • Census of Industrial Production (CIP) • Annual Services Inquiry (ASI) • Detailed surveys covering largest entities in Industry and Services sectors

10. Enterprise file • Other sources • Revenue Large Cases Division (RevenueLCD) • Team of CSO staff who are based in the offices of the tax authority • They extract detailed data from tax returns of largest companies and ensure that the data we use is in line with National Accounting principles

11. Enterprise file • Creation of file • Deal with duplicate records • Add CSO Identifier – Enterprise number • Calculate 7 main National Accounts Vars • Output • Intermediate Consumption • Gross Value Added • Wages & Salaries • Employers Contrib. to Social Ins • Gross Operating Surplus • Depreciation

12. Enterprise file • Use Enterprise number as unique identifier to join all these files • Now have version of variables from each source for easy comparison • Each var has suffix to identify source e.g. Output_CIP, Output_ASI • But need a way to choose ‘final’ value

13. Enterprise file • Default priority • Revenue LCD file • ASI / CIP data • P35 • Corporation Tax / Income Tax • Variable gets _NATACC suffix • Default can be over-ridden if desired

14. Enterprise file • Problems encountered – and solutions • Missing enterprise numbers • Create temporary Enterprise numeber • Check larger entities individually • Multiplicity of entities • Process to ensure no duplication during merge • File is very large • Load data to DMS at off-peak times • Possible future developments to address this

15. Enterprise file • Enterprise file within the new IT system • DMS holds Enterprise file • Single source for company/sole trader data at unit level • Authorised users can modify data • Integrated into overall IT system • Standard macro in SAS to read data

16. Enterprise file

17. Benefits and future plans • Benefits • Single source • Central storage location • Audit trail of data changes • Efficient processing

18. Benefits and future plans • Future plans • Size of file currently a slight issue • Remove source variables • Aggregate smaller entities by Industrial Group and Institutional Sector • If size sufficiently reduced – may be possible to include extra sources of variables