Statistical “decentramento” in Italy: Significance and implications

Abstract

Decentralization of statistical activities is one of the keys to understanding the reform of the institutional framework in Italian statistics, and the challenges facing official statistics in the 1990s.

The paper analyses the specific features of the Italian statistical ‘decentramento’ in relation to developments affecting the national economy and society, and to the requirements of the post-war transition.

The need to bring official statistics closer to users, the opportunity of exploiting administrative sources for statistical purposes, the diffusion of statistical expertise and information technologies have created conditions for a regulated and controlled decentralization of official statistics.

The reform of 1989 has introduced an institutional framework capable of making decentralization work and avoiding some of its drawbacks. Its main features are: a) the creation of a ‘National Statistical System’ attributing co-ordination and regulatory powers to Istat; b) the transformation of Istat into a research institute with greater autonomy and flexibility and closer links with the centers of excellence of statistical research: c) the introduction of strict confidentiality rules not only for Istat but also for all the relevant players in the system.

Implications are finally discussed for the emerging issues relating to privatization, the growing market for statistical information and increasing globalization.