Part C. Impact on sample design Ing. Marie Hörmannová, CSc. Business Cycle Surveys Department
Introduction In December 2006, the European Council adopted the regulation establishing the revised EU statistical classification of economic activities, NACE Rev. 2. The implementation of NACE Rev. 2 will be spread over 5 years, starting from 1 January 2008. The revision of NACE will have a major impact on business surveys, too. The questionnaire on NACE Rev. 2 is divided into three parts corresponding to the three issues identified as the most relevant: Implementation date (Part A); Reconstructing historical time series (Part B); and Impact on sample design (Part C) This presentation deals with the Part C of the questionnaire.
C1. Do you consider that the current sizes of your different samples are large enough to ensure the statistical precision of balances once converted into NACE Rev. 2? Answer Number of Countries Yes 18 Countries AT BE BG CY CZ DK EE EL ES FR HU IT LT LU MT PL SI SK No 6 DE LV NL SE TR UK N/A 1 RO comment: several respondents with answer yes additionally think that the current sample size is sufficient, however, there might be some problems concerning specific sub-sectors these will be treated especially
C2. Do you plan to modify the size of the industry sample? Yes, we plan to enlarge the sample No 14 9 AT CY DE LV MT SE SK TR UK BE BG CZ DK EE ES FR HU IT LT LU NL PL SI N/A 2 EL RO comment: several respondents (both yes and no answer) say that they will enlarge the sample if it is necessary in particular sub-sectors; AT would enlarge the sample in any case; LU has enlarged the sample in 2007.
C3. Do you plan to modify the size of the investment sample? Yes, we plan to enlarge the sample No 14 7 AT CY DE LV SE SK UK BE BG CZ DK EE ES FR HU IT LT LU NL PL SI N/A 4 EL MT RO TR comment: most respondents are not going to enlarge the investment survey sample.
C4. Do you plan to modify the size of the services sample? Yes, we plan to enlarge the sample 11 AT CY CZ DE LT LV MT NL SI SK UK No 8 BE BG DK EE FR HU IT PL N/A 6 EL ES LU RO SE TR comment: services sample is the one that will be enlarged by most countries due to the NACE Rev. 2 implementation. 11 countries consider services sample enlargement necessary.
C5. Do you plan to modify the size of the retail trade sample? Yes, we plan to enlarge the sample 5 CY DE LV SK UK No 13 N/A 7 AT BE BG CZ DK EE FR HU IT LT NL PL SI EL ES LU MT RO SE TR comment: as opposed to services, most respondents are not going to enlarge the retail trade survey sample.
C6. Do you plan to modify the size of the construction sample? Yes, we plan to enlarge the sample 7 AT CY DE ES LV SI SK No 11 N/A 6 BE BG CZ DK EE FR HU IT LU NL PL EL MT RO SE TR UK comment: In general, most respondents are not going to enlarge the sample here. LT even plans to reduce the sample in construction.
Remarks to questions C2 C6 remark 1: CY DE LV SK plan to enlarge all samples remark 2: IT PL FR BE BG DK EE HU plan not to change any of the samples remark 3: most countires (11) plan to enlarge the services survey sample; 9 plan to enlarge industry sample. remark 4: only LT plans to reduce the sample (in construction)
C7. In general, do you update your survey samples every year? Yes 20 AT BG CZ DE DK EE EL ES FR HU LT LU LV NL PL RO SE SI TR UK No 5 BE CY IT MT SK comment: IT and MT update the sample every two and two or three years, respectively; BE updates the sample when they lose an importatnt respondent; AT updates the sample even more often.
C8. When is the next sample renewal (in accordance with the NACE Rev. 2 survey fields) scheduled? 2007 3 AT LT MT 2008 10 CY CZ EE EL HU LV PL SE SI UK 2009 6 DE DK ES NL RO TR N/A 6 BG FR IT SK BE LU comment: FR will renew the sample once the SBS data are available; MT answered that they would renew the industry sample in 2007.
C9. Which data will constitute the frame of these new samples? Business Registers Data 18 BE BG CZ DK EE EL ES HU LT LU LV MT NL RO SE SI SK UK Definitive SBS Data 4 CY DE FR TR Other 3 AT IT PL comment: AT - Database of the Members of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, which is "synchronised" with the business register of the statistical office; PL - enterprises answering to the yearly surveys; IT - N/A
Conclusion All respondents feel the importance of the NACE Rev. 2 implementation to BCS sector They will adjust namely the samples in services and industry (both sectors are affected the most by the revision) The implementation will be difficult however all respondents feel that it will improve the quality of the BCS data. The main objective of the whole process of the NACE Rev. 2 implementation is to ensure representative results in all sectors and namely sub-sectors covered by the BCS surveys.
Thank you for your attention!