Study visit to European institutions

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In April 2016, DevStat organised a study visit to European institutions (DG REGIO, EUROSTAT and ESPON), for delegates from the National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry for Regional Development and Constructions of the Republic of Moldova. The study visit was organised in the frame of the EuropeAid technical assistance project on “Improved Regional Statistics in the Republic of Moldova”, that DevStat is implementing jointly with other partners. DevStat staff (Flora Carausu and José Cervera) accompanied the study visit.

The working sessions at Eurostat covered the requirements and methodology for regional statistics and modernisation initiatives within the European Statistical System

At DG REGIO, the focus of the discussions targeted the policy-makers as users of statistics. The visit at ESPON complemented the visits by examining the research initiatives and using modern analysis and visualisation tools for evidence-based territorial policies.

The visit benefitted of the experience of DevStat both on development of official statistics and on support to decision-making based on quantitative evidence at the territorial level. Other related projects implemented by DevStat include the support to Eurostat for a study on comparable Labour Market Areas, the management of Local Administrative Units database and the dissemination of regional studies in the Statistical Observatory of the Euro-Mediterranean Arch.

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Source: Official photo of the study visit group, Eurostat

Assistance for the organisation of ESTP – The Use of R in Official Statistics

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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 “The Use of R in Official Statistics” in Vienna on 5, 6 and 7 of April 2016.

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On this occasion, for the organisation of the course, DevStat was supported by Statistics Austria. The course was taught by part of their staff, Mr Alexander Kowarik (course leader), Mr Matthias Templ and Mr Bernhard Meindl and it was attended by sixteen participants from several National Statistical Institutes within the European Statistical System (ESS) and from Eurostat.
The objective of the course was to provide participants with basic knowledge about the syntax and basis of the R programming language and to provide an overview of the main packages which are important for the statistical production process. The activity will pay special attention to these packages devoted to management of large databases and the analysis of complex surveys.
The content of the course covered the following topics: essentials of R; descriptive statisitics; data visualisation; programming with R and R in a statistical office.
DevStat thanks the trainers and also the participants for their commitment during the course sessions.

European Statistics Modernisation Workshop – Bucharest 2016

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The ESS European Statistics Modernisation Workshop, organised by Eurostat with the support of DevStat for the EU national statistical institutes, took place in Bucharest at the National Statistical Institute of Romania on 16-17 March 2016.

devstat_eu-statistics-modernisation_2016The workshop was open to all colleagues participating actively in EU and national statistics modernisation projects and staff with responsibilities in methodological activities and implementation of change processes in the National Statistical Offices.

During the Workshop different themes were discussed: sustainability of modernisation processes, use of Big Data for European statistics, Validation and Integration of different statistical sources, National Modernisation Programmes, dissemination and user relationship.

The Workshop was a complete success: Bucharest received more than 98 participants from 31 different countries and more than 34 presentations took place.
DevStat is are now preparing our next Event: 2016 Visualisation Workshop – Valencia 17, 18 May 2016. This workshop aims at increasing awareness of the issue of visualising statistics, identifying emerging best practices to identify synergies and options for joint development efforts; sharing best practices, new ideas, tools, and experiences.

Assistance for the organisation of The European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP) – Behavioural Economics Course

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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.

Assistance for the organisation of The European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP) – Time Series Econometrics Course

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Within the framework of Eurostat’s European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP), DevStat in consortium with the Lithuanian Department of Statistics and the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria held a three day course on “Time Series Econometrics” in Valencia on 24, 25 and 26 February 2016.

The course was taught by Mr Fabio Bacchini (course leader) and Mr Riccardo Lucchetti and it was attended by sixteen participants from several National Statistical Institutes and ONAs (Other National Authorities) within the European Statistical System (ESS).

The objective of the course was to present an overview of modern time series econometrics both for univariant and multivariate time series.

By a mixture of theorical and practical sessions some of the topics discussed were:

  • The introduction to time series and GRETL environment;
  • Univariate time series: AR, MA and ARIMA process;
  • Non-linear models: ARCH and GARCH process;
  • Multivariate time series: VAR, cointegration and VECM.

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

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Assistance for the organisation of The European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP) – Lot 1: Statistical Methodology

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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.

DevStat is implementing a project for the Statistical Office of Macedonia

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DevStat is carrying out (in consortium) the technical assistance project to implement the Tailor-made software development and data warehouse for economic statistics in the State Statistical Office of Macedonia. The project addresses the needs for a very detailed description of functionalities needed to re-design the existing Data warehouse for macroeconomic statistics. These specifications will be used in the preparation of the ToR for tendering outsourced software development for data warehouse for macroeconomic statistics.

We have moved to a new office

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We are happy to announce that we have now moved into a new office headquarters.

DevStat continues to grow and as a natural step of that growth we need more space. Our new office is significantly larger, and if gives our staff a greatly improved working environment, as well as room for continued expansion. From our new office we will be able to work even more effectively.
The fact that this move has happened as we are celebrating the company’s 12th birthday, is symbolic of the long-term success of the company. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has contributed to the company and its success.

The visiting address of our new office is Av. Barón de cárcer, 26 – First floor, 46001 – Valencia.
Our telephone number has also changed to (+34) 962 069 190. All our other contact information stays the same.

As usual, we will be more than happy to welcome you at our new office building.

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(EMV) La estadística valenciana conquista el mundo

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DevStat. La estadística valenciana conquista el mundo.

Ver noticia – Levante-EMV

Regional visits in Russia

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DevStat was invited to visit the Statistical offices of Novosibirsk and Altai regions of Russia. During the visit, both sides discussed the main problems of use and maintenance of the Russian Statistical Business Register at the regional level, as well as the ways for improvement of Business Statistics.

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