This edited volume is based on significant papers presented at The Sixth International Conference on Establishment Statistics (ICES-VI). In addition to providing broad introductions in specialized topic areas, the volume discusses a wide spectrum of new issues related to business statistics, its methods and collecting business data, including: new developments in business surveys (like non-probability sampling, developments in web surveys, adaptive business designs), statistical process control, use of alternative/secondary data sources like registers and big data, register methodology, Internet of Things possibilities (smart farming data, smart industries data), new computer technologies, consequences of globalization, and new indicators for the economy (like Sustainable Development Goals). Over the past few decades, methodologists around the world have worked actively on optimizing approaches for the development, conduct and evaluation of modern business programs. Furthermore, there are emerging data sources and new technologies, like big data, machine learning and advanced visualization, that are used in modern applications and are not discussed in other books, simply because they did not previously exist. Like the conference itself, the edited volume provides a broad overview of modern developments in collecting business data and producing business statistics. Both the conference and the resulting book summarizes the status quo of business statistics methods and serves as a proactive forum to prepare researchers to meet future challenges.

Ger Snijkers, PhD, is Senior Methodologist at Statistics Netherlands and former Professor of data collection methodology in business research at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Mojca Bavdaž, PhD, is Associate Professor at the School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Stefan Bender, is Head of the Data Service Center of the Deutsche Bundesbank and Honorary Professor at the School of Social Sciences, University Mannheim, Germany.

Jacqui Jones is the General Manager of Macroeconomic Statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. She formerly worked at the UK Office for National Statistics.

Steve MacFeely, PhD, is Director of Data and Analytics at the World Health Organization (WHO) and co-chair of the Committee of Chief Statisticians of the UN System. Formerly he was Chief Statistician of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Deputy Director of the Central Statistics Office, Ireland.

Joseph W. Sakshaug, PhD, is Professor at the Institute for Employment Research and Department of Statistics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany.

Katherine J. Thompson is the Senior Mathematical Statistician in the Associate Directorate for Economic Programs at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Arnout van Delden, PhD, is Senior Methodologist in the use of administrative data and multisource statistics at Statistics Netherlands.

1. Advances in Business Statistics, Methods and Data Collection: Introduction Ger Snijkers, Mojca Bavda?, Stefan Bender, Jacqui Jones, Steve MacFeely, Joseph W. Sakshaug, Katherine Jenny Thompson, and Arnout van Delden (still to be written)

Section 1: New Measures/Indicators for the Economy (the demand side) (6 chapters)

2. The System of National Accounts: Past and Present Steve MacFeely and Peter van der Ven

3. The System of National Accounts: Future Challenges Peter van der Ven and Steve MacFeely

4. Bridging the Gap between Business- and Macro-economic Statistics: Methodological Considerations and Practical Solutions Timo Koskimäki and Kristian Taskinen

5. Measuring Investment in Intangible Assets Mojca Bavda?, Ahmed Bounfour, Josh Martin, Alberto Nonnis , Giulio Perani, and Tjaša Redek

6. Measuring the US Digital Economy Jessica Nicholson, David Wasshausen, and Thomas Howells

7. Establishment Base Informal Sector Statistics: An Endeavour of Measurement from Economic Census 2018 of Nepal Mahesh Pradhan

Section 2: Topics in the production of official establishment statistics (the supply side) (4 chapters)

8. Statistical Producer Challenges and Help Jacqui Jones and Holly O’Byrne

9. Statistical Business Registers in Indonesia and Australia Willem Erasmus, Luisa Ryan, Ratih Putri Pertiwi, Radenroro Nefriana, and Imam Machdi

10. Managing Response Burden for Official Statistics Business Surveys: Experiences and Recent Developments at Statistics Netherlands, Statistics Portugal, and Statistics Sweden Johan Erikson, Deirdre Giesen, Leanne Houben, and Paulo Saraiva dos Santos

11. Producing Official Statistics during the COVID-19 Pandemic Jacqui Jones, Craig H. McLaren, Duncan Elliott, Dane Mead, Helen Baird, Joseph W. Sakshaug, Corinna Koenig, Marieke Volkert, Tanya Price, and Marie Apostolou

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Section 3: Topics in the use of administrative data

(3 chapters)

12. Methodology for the Use of Administrative Data in Business Statistics

Arnout van Delden and Danni Lewis

13. Developing Statistical Frameworks for Administrative Data and Integrating It into Business

Statistics: Experiences from the UK and New Zealand

Nicholas Cox, Craig H. McLaren, Claire Shenton, Tom Tarling, and Ella Williams Davies

14. The Evolution of Integrating Administrative Data in Business Statistics in Ireland

Colin Hanley and Sorcha O'Callaghan

Section 4: Topics in business survey data collection

(7 chapters)

15. Computerized Questionnaires within a Business Environment

Gustav Haraldsen

16. Tailoring the Design of a New Combined Business Survey to the Business Context: Process,

Methods, and Lessons Learned

Ger Snijkers, Leanne Houben, and Fred Demollin

17. Advances in Question(naire) Development, Pretesting, and Evaluation

Diane K. Willimack, Amy E. Anderson Riemer, Melissa A. Cidade, Kathy Ott, and

Heather Ridolfo

18. Using Paradata to Monitor and Evaluate Electronic Business Survey Questionnaires

Ger Snijkers, Susan Demedash, and Jessica Andrews

19. Experiments in Business Surveys

Josh Langeland, Heather Ridolfo, Jaki McCarthy, Kathy Ott, Doug Kilburg , Karen CyBulski,

Melissa Krakowiecki, Larry Vittoriano, Matt Potts, Benjamin Küfner, Joseph W. Sakshaug,

and Stefan Zins

20. Web Portals for Reporting Businesses

Bente Hole and Leanne Houben

21. A Creative Approach to Promoting Survey Response

Charles F. Brady and Kari L. Klinedinst

Section 5: Topics in the use of new data sources and new technologies

(5 chapters)

22. Statistical Data Production in a Digitised Age: The Need to Establish Successful Workflows

for Micro Data Access

Stefan Bender, Jannick Blaschke, and Christian Hirsch

23. Machine Learning in German Official Statistics

Florian Dumpert

24. Six Years of Machine Learning in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Alexander Measure

25. Using Machine Learning to Classify Products for the US Commodity Flow Survey

Christian Moscardi and Benjamin Schultz

26. Alternative Data Sources in the US Census Bureau’s Monthly State Retail Sales Data Product

Rebecca Hutchinson, Scott Scheleur, and Deanna Weidenhamer

Section 6: Topics in sampling and estimation

(6 chapters)

27. Introduction to Sampling and Estimation for Business Surveys

Paul A. Smith and Wesley Yung

28. Sample Coordination Methods and Systems for Establishment Surveys

Alina Matei and Paul A. Smith

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29. Variance Estimation for Probability and Nonprobability Establishment Surveys: an Overview Jill A. Dever and Dan Liao

30. Bayesian Methods Applied to Small Area Estimation for Establishment Statistics Paul A. Parker, Ryan Janicki, and Scott H. Holan

31. Variance estimation under Nearest Neighbour Hot Deck Imputation for Multinomial Data: Two approaches Applied to the US Service Annual Survey (SAS) Rebecca Andridge, Jae-Kwang Kim, and Katherine Jenny Thompson

32. Minimizing Revisions for a Monthly Economic Indicator Nicole Czaplicki, Stephen Kaputa, and Laura Bechtel

Section 7: Topics in data integration/merging (4 chapters)

33. Record Linkage for Establishments: Background, Challenges, and an Example Michael D. Larsen and Alan Herning

34. Methods for Estimating the Quality of Multisource Statistics Arnout van Delden, Sander Scholtus, Ton de Waal, and Irene Csorba

35. Adopting Previously Reported Data into the 2022 US Census of Agriculture: Lessons Learned from the 2020 US Agricultural Production Survey Linda J. Young, Joseph B. Rodhouse, Zachary Terner, and Gavin Corral

36. Integrating Alternative and Administrative Data into the Monthly Business Statistics: Some Applications from Statistics Canada Marie-Claude Duval, Richard Laroche, and Sébastien Landry