‘Microdata’ Give Boost to Economic Decisionmakers

  • Microdata allow users to analyze policy impact
  • Trustworthy, informative, and accessible data fundamental to good policy decisions
  • Legal frameworks necessary to balance confidentiality and access to microdata
  • Private corporations are also mining extensive datasets from social media, credit card transactions or cellphones to reveal patterns, trends, and associations of individuals, groups, and businesses.

    The Third IMF Statistical Forum—co-hosted by Deutsche Bundesbank in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in November 19 and 20—gathered statisticians, central bankers, policymakers, and university professors to discuss a range of topics–from big data and microdata hubs to measuring material conditions of households. Microdata became the focal point of the forum.

    What are microdata?

    Microdata are unit-level data obtained from sample surveys, censuses, and administrative systems. They provide information about characteristics of individual people or entities such as households, business enterprises, facilities, farms or even geographical areas like villages or towns. An example would be the wages of individuals in a given company for a set period. They allow in-depth understanding of socio-economic issues by studying relationships and interactions among phenomena. Microdata are therefore key to designing projects and formulating policies, targeting interventions and monitoring and measuring the impact and results of projects, interventions and policies.

    Leverage the data

    Intelligence and judgment remain key ingredients to make microdata truly useful for policy purposes, indicated Professor Shirakawa, former governor of the Bank of Japan. During the 2011 earthquake crisis in Japan, for instance, policymakers consulted with local businesses to determine appropriate policy decisions.

    Vitor Gaspar, Director of the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department, noted that we are in the midst of one of the largest booms and busts faced by resource-rich countries in the last 100 years. Data show the weaker performance of resource-rich economies over the long run with very few exceptions (see Chart). Even the oft-cited success story of Norway in managing oil revenue has challenges. Therefore, use of reliable data on natural resources and microdata on households’ and firms’ decisions can help address some difficult questions: How to design countercyclical policies when it is unclear if the current low oil price is cyclical or part of a permanent trend? How can a country...

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