BIG DATA: POTENTIAL, CHALLENGES, AND IMPLICATIONS IN OFFICIAL STATISTICS

Abstract

The data explosion called “data deluge”, is already starting to transform public institutions redefining their way of producing statistics in response to Big Data. The use of Big Data is considered as an innovation in the production of official statistics facing a range of opportunities, challenges and risks. This “data deluge” requires a number of challenges to be addressed in various domains: technological, legal, methodological, and statistical. Even though big data is changing the paradigm of producing statistics in many public organizations, an open debate still exists involving both IT specialists and statisticians of national statistical institutions.  In this paper we will provide an overview regarding the concepts of Big Data as a data source in production of official statistics by government institutions with the main focus on providing a synoptic overview of opportunities, challenges and risks. Following this, in the next section we will analyse a case study related to the potential use of mobile positing data, and how this data could be used to produce national statistical indicators in the country. This study serves as an example to identify some critical issues on challenges and risks, draw conclusions and give recommendations on the proper ways to shift to Big Data paradigm usage in the government sector in Albania.