Archive for year: 2016

Within the framework of Eurostat’s European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP), DevStat in corsotium with the Lithuanian Department of Statistics and the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria held a three day course on “Behavioural Economics” in Valencia on 2, 3 and 4 of March 2016.

The course was taught by Dr José Vila (course leader) and Mr Carlo Capuano and it was attended by eight participants from several National Statistical Institutes within the European Statistical System (ESS) and from Eurostat.

The objective of the course was to provide the participants with the basic knowledge on behavioural economics (BE); the understanding of the role of behavioural insights in European policy-making and the ESS; and the skills to apply BE good practices to enhance data collection and dissemination in their NSI or other institutions.

The content of the course covered the following topics: from conventional economics to BE; behavioural individual decision-making (decision under uncertainty: propect and rank dependent utility theories; decision along time); behavioural social decision-making (behavioural game theory, strategy versus cooperation); BE for policy-making (the European approach; behavioural markets; and ethical considerations); and applications of BE in an NSI (BE-based good practices to enhance data collection and data dissemination).

The course included also a visit to the experimental lab (LINEEX).

DevStat thanks the trainers and also the participants for their commitment during the course sessions.

Within the framework of Eurostat’s European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP), DevStat in corsotium with the Lithuanian Department of Statistics and the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria is currently assisting Eurostat in the organisation of the ESTP courses aiming at:

• Raising the overall quality of European Statistics;
• Raising the qualification of statisticians in the ESS in order to promote their independence in line with the Code of Practice;
• Encouragin both theoretical and practical learning and development; and
• Encouraging the exchange of best practices, know how and experience.

During the first year of implementation a total of six training courses on the following selected statistical topics are being organised:

1. Time Series Econometrics [22, 23 and 24 February 2016 in Valencia (Spain)].
2. Behavioural Economics [2, 3 and 4 March 2016 in Valencia (Spain)].
3. The Use of R in Official Statistics: model based estimates [5, 6 and 7 April 2016 in Viena (Austria)].
4. Can a Statistician become a Data Scientist? [8, 9 and 10 June 2016 in Valencia (Spain)].
5. Cognitive Interviewing [15 and 16 September 2016 in Viena (Austria)].
6. Statistical Matching and Record Linkage [19, 20 and 21 September 2016 in Valencia (Spain)].

The ESTP courses will target mainly officials and employees of National Statistical Institutes and ONAs (Other National Authorities) within the European Statistical System (ESS). Some courses can be delivered also to staff of the European Commission.