Response Burden in Official Business Surveys: Measurement and Reduction Practices of National Statistical Institutes

Abstract

Response burden in business surveys has long been a concern for National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) for three types of reasons: political reasons, because response burden is part of the total administrative burden governments impose on businesses; methodological reasons, because an excessive response burden may reduce data quality and increase data-collection costs; and strategic reasons, because it affects relations between the NSIs and the business community. This article investigates NSI practices concerning business response burden measurement and reduction actions based on a survey of 41 NSIs from 39 countries. Most NSIs monitor at least some burden aspects and have implemented some actions to reduce burden, but large differences exist between NSIs’ methodologies for burden measurement and actions taken to reduce burden. Future research should find ways to deal with methodological differences in burden conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement, and provide insights into the effectiveness and efficiency of burden-reduction actions.

Response Burden Management for Establishment Surveys at Four National Statistical Institutes

“…Many NSIs monitor actual response burden (i.e., time and/or money spent by businesses to comply with the survey request), but with variations in the methodology used (Bavdaž et al 2015). We also see these variations for the four NSIs whose response burden management is described in this article.…”

Business data collection methodology: Current state and future outlook

“…As business survey response occupies people's paid time and is often mandatory, burden imposed on businesses is considered one of the key constraints in sur-veys, next to internal costs, time, and quality considerations [16][17][18]. Sources of response burden are numerous [19] as are the activities that national statistical institutes (NSIs) have developed to deal with burden [20,21].…”

Determination of the Threshold in Cutoff Sampling Using Response Burden with an Application to Intrastat

“…Businesses have been loudly questioning the need to provide data to the government, which has contributed to programs of administrative burden reduction and increased attention to burden in mandatory business surveys. National statistical institutes (NSIs) have taken different measures to reduce response burden; some of them try to help businesses to carry the burden by providing guidance and improving processes and others try to reduce the burden by reducing sample sizes, numbers of questions, and so on (Bavdaz ˇet al 2015, Giesen et al 2018. This article mainly focuses on this second approach, controlling burden through sample sizes.…”