Affiliations: Istat, Via Cesare Balbo, I-00184, Rome, Italy
Note: [1] This paper draws on the discussions held in the course of the seminar on “National Accounts, Economic Analysis and Social Statistics” which took place at the Certosa di Pontignano, Siena, in memory of Sir Richard Stone. The ideas and proposals developed in the paper owe substantially to the conclusions drawn at a round table in which Ms. L. Barreiros (Eurostat), Mr. G. Guteland (Statistics Sweden), Mr. J.C. Milleron (United Nations) and myself participated. I wish to thank also K. Abraham, I. Fellegy, T. Griffin, C. Malaguerra, D. Ramprakash, G. Vukovich, for their stimulating comments and contributions. All merit should be credited to the participants of the seminar and other contributors, while responsibility for errors and omissions and for the text itself is mine alone. I also thank Ms. M. Marchioni and Ms. M. Di Cesare for their assistance.
Abstract: The transformations and concerns facing our societies pose formidable challenges to statistics and statisticians. There remain considerable shortcomings in the supply of policy-relevant social statistics and indicators, both at the national and international level. The paper reviews progress in the field, identifying the reasons for the existing gaps and prospects for enhancing work. Three areas are indicated as the most promising for priority action: 1) the development of broader frameworks, including accounting frameworks, specifying linkages and sequences involving social phenomena in relation to economic environmental and institutional ones; 2) the use of micro-data for modelling and policy simulation; 3) the experimentation of policy-oriented and user-friendly statistical indicators. The paper concludes by formulating proposals for revisiting the research agenda in this area and giving National Statistical Institutes a greater role among the many players involved, including the research community and local institutions. The discussion of these proposals has been the basis for the initiative taken by Statistics Sweden, Statistics Norway and Istat to activate the “Siena Group on Social Statistics”.
