Business-to-government data sharing for official statistics (B2G4S)

This PhD research investigates how access to business data for official statistics is being institutionalized in the EU and what the outcomes are of the use of this data for the production of official statistics and ultimately for government decision-making on societal challenges.

Official statistics are statistics provided by national and international statistical bodies as public good to everybody and for free. They aim to provide high-quality information and are understood to be essential for effective and informed decision-making for tackling societal challenges. Digitalization and the emergence of Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) brought an increasing availability of real-time data, which provides opportunities to make statistical insights more frequent and closer to real-time. This appeared to be critical in times of crisis, for example during the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, the increasing demand and the availability of privately held data prompted the debate and practice of business-to-government data sharing for official statistics (B2G4S) in the past years.

There are various approaches to institutionalize access to privately held data, yet there is little known about how national statistical offices (NSOs) apply these approaches and what are the implications thereof. Consequently, this PhD research focuses on the following research questions:

1) How can we explain the tensions between NSOs and businesses across the EU regarding B2G4S?

2) How is B2G4S being institutionalized in the EU and how do businesses respond to this?

3) What are the outcomes of B2G4S across the EU and to what extent do they contribute to addressing societal challenges?

Using a mix of research methods (discourse analysis, comparative case studies, process tracing), this PhD research will result in a much needed perspective understanding how B2G4S is being institutionalized in the EU and the use and value of business data for the production of official statistics and ultimately for government decision-making on societal challenges.

This PhD research is conducted by Sofie de Wilde de Ligny.