Trying to Assess the Quality of Macroeconomic Data - The Case of Swiss Labour Productivity Growth as an Example
KOF Working Paper No. 173
28 Pages Posted: 5 Sep 2007
Date Written: September 2007
Abstract
Macroeconomic data are indispensable for modern governance, yet it is often unclear how reliable these data are. The production process of macroeconomic data inside the statistical offices is often not very transparent for the general public. Bystanders usually have no choice but to take for granted the published data because criteria by which to judge data quality are wanting. Hoping to contribute to a better understanding of the quality of macroeconomic data, this paper proposes several plausibility checks and applies them to recently published Swiss labour productivity growth figures. Although the proposed checks cannot 'prove' or 'disprove' the official data, they are capable of either strengthening our confidence in the official data or, alternatively, of casting them into doubt. Policy debates drawing on official data will hardly be able to ignore differences in the degree of confidence with which these data are held to be accurate.
Keywords: Accuracy of macroeconomic observations, statistical artefacts, labour productivity
JEL Classification: C82, O47
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
By Anita Wölfl
-
Performance Rating and Yardstick Competition in Social Service Provision
-
Comparing Labour Productivity Growth in the OECD Area: The Role of Measurement
By Nadim Ahmad, François Lequiller, ...
-
What Drives Health Care Expenditure? Baumol's Model of 'Unbalanced Growth' Revisited
-
The Service Economy in OECD Countries
By Anita Wölfl
-
Measuring the Interaction between Manufacturing and Services
By Dirk Pilat and Anita Wölfl
-
Mental Health Expenditure in England: A Spatial Panel Approach
By Francesco Moscone, Martin Knapp, ...
-
Medical Care Price Indices: Problems and Opportunities / the Chung-Hua Lectures