Towards a market strategy for the official statistics industry

Abstract

Good strategies start with diagnosis of the challenge. The paper presents indications that the High-Level Group for the Modernisation of Statistical production and Services took lightly on that task. The argument of the paper is that in order to detect the challenges that the industry is facing, the venues where it operates should be considered as markets. This is also a precondition for meeting the challenges with the tools for strategic management. Four venues are analysed: The Treasury, which serves as the industry's capital market, the product markets of sample surveys and administrative records statistics, and the public sphere or marketplace of ideas. The venues have different market characteristics. The capital market is a monopsony. The market for sample surveys statistics is subject to free competition. Administrative records are natural monopolies. In the public sphere statistics may be subject to monopolistic competition. Depending on the market the members of the official statistics industry can take four positions, as competitor, collaborator, coordinator and controller. Some are compatible, but impossible to reconcile are the positions as competitor and coordinator or controller. The development in the increasingly important market for administrative records statistics suggests that the industry should emphasize the controller option.