Innovations in Federal Statistics Combining Data Sources While Protecting Privacy (2017) / Chapter Skim
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2 Current Challenges and Opportunities in Federal Statistics
2 Current Challenges and Opportunities in Federal Statistics
Pages 13-30
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From page 13... ...
THE U.S. FEDERAL STATISTICAL SYSTEM Since the founding days of the country, the system of national statistics has changed many times in response to growing needs for data, developments in technology and statistical methodology, decreasing response rates, and increasing concern about privacy (Bellhouse, 2000; Duncan, 1976; Sylvester and Lohr, 2005)
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, which is composed of the heads of the principal statistical agencies and is codified in the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.
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. As needs for information grew, new statistical agencies were formed in various other departments.
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It is of critical importance for the country not only that federal statistical agencies provide indicators that assist planning, investments, and the development of national priorities, but also that they do so in an objective manner. Since all statistics have limitations, the credibility of statistical information requires transparency of methods (Miller, 2010)
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In the United States, the National Research Council first published Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency in 1992, and it has been widely used by U.S. statistical agencies and cited in OMB directives and GAO reports.
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1: Fundamental Responsibilities of Federal Statistical Agencies and Recognized Statistical Units (Office of Management and Budget, 2014b)
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Office of Management and Budget Directive No. 1, Fundamental Responsibilities of Federal Statistical Agencies and Recognized Statistical Units, outlines four fundamental responsibilities for the Federal Statistical system: 1.
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. In the United States, statistical agencies have a superb record of protecting the personal and business data they collect, and there are strong laws protecting information collected under a pledge of confidentiality for exclusively statistical purposes, such as the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (see Chapter 5)
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Because of the consistency with which federal statistical agencies use this method, estimates can be compared for different time periods and different locations, which is a crucial feature for such indicators as unemployment and poverty.6 Surveys and censuses are currently the principal means of collecting federal statistics. The Census Bureau alone conducts more than 130 economic and demographic surveys every year.7 In addition, private-sector federal contractors also conduct surveys that are sponsored by federal statistical agencies.
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National estimates of health insurance coverage, a key statistic for evaluating the success of the Affordable Care Act, are published by two agencies on the basis of three different surveys: by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) based on the National Health Interview Survey and by the Census Bureau based on both the Annual Survey of Social and Economic Conditions (a supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS)
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. Figure 2-1 shows the decrease in response rates for three federal household surveys from 1994 to 2015: the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES)
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; public-use dataset documentation for the National Health Interview Survey (see ftp://ftp.cdc. gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/NHIS/2015/srvydesc.pdf [November 2016]
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Decreasing response rates also require other efforts, such as callbacks or mixed mode surveys, which further increase the cost of conducting household surveys. Similar patterns of decreasing response rates have also been seen in surveys of establishments.
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Although adjustments are made to the survey weights to correct for demographic imbalances between the survey respondents and the population and to reduce bias, there is no assurance that the adjustments completely remove nonresponse bias for the key measures of interest about victimization rates. Indeed, the adjustment methods require strong assumptions about the nature of the nonresponse, and as response rates decrease, greater reliance is placed on those assumptions.
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. INCREASING DEMANDS FOR MORE DETAILED AND MORE TIMELY INFORMATION The demand for more detailed and timely statistical information has grown steadily in the past two decades (Holt, 2007)
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However, the 5-year-period estimates may mask underlying economic and social changes over shorter time periods and make them less useful for understanding current circumstances and informing decisions. The ACS small-area estimates are also less precise than those from the census long form, resulting in greater uncertainty about the current status.
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CONCLUSION 2-3 The way that statistics are currently produced by federal statistical agencies faces threats from declining participa tion rates and increasing costs. These threats are exacerbated by expanding demands for more timely and geographically detailed information.
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