International Statistical ProgramsOutlineGeneral Structure of International Statistical ProgramsThe Top-down ViewThe United Nations Statistical OfficeOrganization for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentWorld Bank/IMFComparability and Standards© John M. Abowd 2005, all rights reservedInternational Statistical ProgramsJohn M. AbowdFebruary 2005© John M. Abowd 2005, all rights reservedOutline• General structure of international statistical programs• The top-down view (UN to country)• International treaty organizations• National statistical institutes• Comparability and standards© John M. Abowd 2005, all rights reservedGeneral Structure of International Statistical Programs• Data are collected by national statistical institutes, not the international agency• The international agency promulgates standards and definitions, which are adopted (or not) by the national statistical institutes (e.g., U.S. Census Bureau)• The international agency prepares compendia of statistical data and reports© John M. Abowd 2005, all rights reservedThe Top-down View• United Nations (UN)• World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF)• International Labor Organization (ILO)• Organization for Economic Cooperation and (OECD)• Eurostat• National statistical institutes (e.g., INSEE)© John M. Abowd 2005, all rights reservedThe United Nations Statistical Office• Worldwide coverage•Main site: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/default.htm• Public use products– Millenium indicators: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/mi_goals.asp• Documentation and methods: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/mi_def_list.asp• Sources: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/mi_sources_list.asp– Social indicators: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/social/default.htm• Licensed products– United Nations Statistics Common Database: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cdb/cdb_help/cdb_quick_start.asp– Cornell documentation: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/modelun.html– Cornell library gateway: same as above from cornell.edu– Documentation and methods: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods.htm© John M. Abowd 2005, all rights reservedOrganization for Economic Cooperation and Development• Covers 30 member countries representing the developed economies of the world: http://www.oecd.org/document/58/0,2340,en_2649_201185_1889402_1_1_1_1,00.html• Prepares standardized statistics from these countries using input data from official national sources: http://www.oecd.org/statsportal/0,2639,en_2825_293564_1_1_1_1_1,00.html• Public use products in print and pdf format• Licensed products are available in Economist Intellegence Unit CountryData: http://countrydata.bvdep.com/cgi/template.dll?product=101&user=ipaddress (from cornell.edu)• Many statistics available on CDROM from OECD but not online. (see university-based data archives)© John M. Abowd 2005, all rights reservedWorld Bank/IMF• Produce standardized national income statistics in the International Financial Statistics (IFS) database: http://ifs.apdi.net/imf/ifsbrowser.aspx?branch=ROOT• General statistics and documentation: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sta/• Historical data distributed by the ICPSR in the US© John M. Abowd 2005, all rights reservedComparability and Standards• Must review each source specifically• In general, OECD, Eurostat data will be quite comparable• UN data are less comparable due to differences in the quality of the national statistical institutes gathering the