09.30 – 09.50

Welcome and introduction - EC and OECD

Session 1 –  Presentation of work by the OECD Task Force on “Improvement of Response Rates and Minimization of Respondent Load”

Improvement of response rates and minimization of respondent load are of high priority for all national institutes. The specific aim of the task force was to identify good national practice and to make recommendations on the following issues:

09.50 – 10.25 

Presentation by taskforce leaders: 
Relationship between response rates and data collection methods – Analysis of key issues and main findings
Appendix - Bianca Martelli, ISAE

Discussion

10.25 – 11.15 

Business Surveys in South Africa: Testing the ground for internet-based surveys keeping the impact of response rates in mind - Pieter Laubscher, BER, South Africa
ppt presentation

Discussion

11.15 – 11.35

Coffee break

11.35 – 12.10

Assessing and minimising the impact of non-response on survey estimates – Analysis of key issues and main findings - Richard McKenzie, OECD
ppt presentation

Discussion

12.10 – 12.50

Adjusting for non-response: constant-sample method in the French business surveys - Philippe Scherrer, INSEE
ppt presentation

Analysis of non-response patterns in South African business tendency surveys - Pieter Laubscher, BER, South Africa

Discussion

Session 1 conclusions and recommendations

13.00 - 14.20

Lunch

Session 2 –   Presentation of work by OECD Task Force on ‘Harmonisation of Survey Operation and Technical Design”

There are at present no international guidelines and recommendations outlining best practice for the development of business tendency surveys. However, in 2003 the OECD published a Handbook aimed at helping non-member countries to implement and/or develop their business tendency surveys. The survey procedures presented and recommended in the handbook are procedures which are used for official statistical surveys. These recommendations could, however, be used as a starting point for further discussion on development of standards for survey operation and technical design.

Presentations by taskforce leaders: 

14.20 – 14.50 

Efficient sample design and weighting methods – Analysis of key issues and recommendations - Marco Malgarini, ISAE
ppt presentation

Discussion

14.50 - 15.20

Identification and Assessment of Recommended Practices for the Design of Internet Surveys - Anna Stangl, Ifo Institute
ppt presentation

Discussion

15.20  – 15.30

Session 2 conclusions and recommendations

Session 3 – Recent developments of the OECD Business Tendency and Consumer Opinion Surveys Portal:
http://www.oecd.org/std/bt-coi/coordination

To promote harmonization and facilitate best practice through the sharing of information on business tendency and consumer opinion surveys between international organizations and national institutes. The OECD web-portal provides access to the following:

• existing international guidelines and recommendations;
• questionnaires used by national institutes;
• summary metadata describing key elements of national institute surveys;
• links to selected examples of good national practice;
• data presented in a common format for countries and regional aggregates;
• links to papers from meetings organized by the OECD, European Commission and CIRET.

15.30 – 16.00

Brief overview on recent improvements to the portal including developments in the collection and dissemination of metadata - Ronny Nilsson, OECD

Discussion

16.00 – 16.20

Coffee break

16.20 - 16.50

Calculation of normalised business and consumer confidence indicators and OECD and Non-OECD area aggregates (OECD Total, Major 7, Big 6 Non-OECD, World proxy) - Olivier Brunet, OECD

Discussion

16.50 – 17.00

Session 3 conclusions and recommendations - Denis Ward, OECD

Session 4 – Uses of business and consumer opinion survey data, implications for data producers

17.00 - 17.20

Use of business and consumer opinion survey data in business cycle analyses from a user perspective - Guiseppe Parigi, Bank of Italy

Tuesday 15 November

Session 4 – Uses of business and consumer opinion survey data, implications for data producers (cont.)

Session 5 –

Recent developments in the Seasonal Adjustment of Business Tendency and Consumer Opinion Data

Coffee break

Session 6 – Presentations of studies on other topics

11.30 – 12.00

Individual responses to BTS and the forecasting of manufactured production - Hélène Erkel-Rousse, INSEE

Discussion

12.00 - 12.30

Quantified perceived and expected inflation in the Euro Area - how incentives improve consumers inflation forecasts - Staffan Lindén, European Commission

Discussion

Lunch

14.00 - 14.25

Indicator of economic sentiment and confidence indicator in services - Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic

Discussion

14.25 - 14.50

Composite indicators in the business tendency surveys: Practice of Central Statistical Office of Poland and European Commission - Katarzyna Walkowska, GUS, Poland
ppt presentation

Discussion

14.40 - 15.15

Comparison of national versus European Commission confidence indicators - Maarten van de Stadt, European Commission

Discussion

Consumer and entrepreneurs confidence and inflation perception from perspectives of Estonian entry into the European Union and joining the EMU - Marjo Josing, Statistical Office of Estonia

Session 7 – Meeting conclusions and future work

15.50 - 16.20

Review of meeting conclusions and recommendations for:

Task Force on “Improvement of Response Rates and Minimization of Respondent Load” 

Task Force on “Harmonisation of Survey Operation and Technical Design”

Future work on Priority Areas

Discussion 

Future meetings (Back to back with CIRET, Rome, in 2006)

Other business

Denis Ward, OECD