Data Integration and Record Matching: An Austrian Contribution to Research in Official Statistics

Abstract

Data integration techniques are one of the core elements of DIECOFIS, an EU-funded international research project that aims at developing a methodology for the construction of a system of indicators on competitiveness and fiscal impact on enterprise performance. Data integration is also of major interest for official statistics agencies as a means of using available information more efficiently and improving the quality of the agency’s products. The Austrian member of the project consortium comprises university departments, representatives from the Bundesanstalt Statistik Austria, from the Statistical Department of the Austrian Economic Chamber, and from ec3, a non-profit research corporation. This paper gives a short report on DIECOFIS in general and on the Austrian contribution to the project, mainly dealing with data integration methodology. Various papers that have been read at the DIECOFIS workshop last November in Vienna, will be published as a Special Issue of the Austrian Journal of Statistics.