Registers as a tool for statistical integration – The large enterprise component

Abstract

Large and complex business units exert an influence on economic aggregates, entirely out of proportion to their numbers. Business registers, however, tend to treat all business in much the same fashion, irrespective of size. In order to record adequately the structure and scope of large business, special profiling procedures are required. These procedures suggest that business legal and operating organizations must be carefully maintained and up-dated. In Canada, this point was not fully appreciated until recently but current inquiries suggest that this may be at the root of data problems in business surveys. Moreover, as large and complex business are subject to more than one survey, their returns are often inconsistent, making integration of related data almost impossible. Indications are that to make data more amenable to integration within resource constraints, it may be necessary to split registers into two files one of which should be devoted to large and complex business.