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Web Survey Bibliography

Title The New Survey on Producer Prices on Non-Domestic Market: A Mixed Mode Data Collection
Author de Santis, V., Iacobacci, T.
Source European Conference on Quality and Methodology in Official Statistics, 2004
Year 2004
Access date 01.09.2004
Abstract In this paper we show some methodological aspects and preliminary results concerning the comparison between data collected by web questionnaire and those collected by papery form, in the context of the new monthly survey on producer prices on nondomestic market (hereafter PPIND). In the PPIND survey a new mode of data collection has been adopted, together with the usual procedure based on papery form: the new one was based on electronic questionnaire, available on an internet web site suitably designed and implemented for the PPIND survey. The web procedure was set up both for the construction of the base of the index period and for the monthly data collection. The reporting units, selected for the sample, have had to choose either of the two drawing up modes for recording and sending the price data to ISTAT. In the light of the wild spread of the internet tool on the business field, our goal, largely achieved, was lead the most of reporting units to adopt the electronic questionnaire, unless some clear difficulties (i.e. the internet connection wasn’t available), for yielding some significant quality improvements on the data production process, in comparison with the use of the papery form; the improvements will be measured by appropriate quality indicators, about which we will focus our attention. The adoption of the electronic data collection on web has allowed as follow:
  • a real time data communication: the information flow is recorded and/or updated and saved on web form by the reporting units; quotations are promptly captured by the Oracle database set up for this survey;
  • a smaller number of employees involved in the data recording operations: the reporting units, in fact, have filled in the electronic form;
  • a lower sending costs: since the most of reporting units have adopted the web form, ISTAT sends by postal service a reduced number of papery questionnaires and it makes the survey less expensive;
  • using the web questionnaire, reporting units have been able to directly solve some errors occurring while filling in the form. In fact, behind the web questionnaire a system of data control – realised by warning messages or by constrained variables – has been designed for reducing both the typing errors and the incoherence errors, the last ones due to the complex structure of the form (two kinds of prices, f.o.b. and ex-work, monthly data for two-year period, information about the country destination within the euro-zone/non euro-zone).
    • Reporting units have answered positively to the web questionnaire. By analysing the first results – at the beginning of the data collection operations – about the 50 per cent of reporting units decided to choose the web questionnaire. Further, about 20, 25 per cent of the reporting units, that firstly chose the papery questionnaire for the two-year period, have been available to adopt the web questionnaire.
    Access/Direct link Homepage - conference (abstract)
    Year of publication2004
    Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
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