Alternative Sources of Statistical Information as the Basis for Political Decision Making

To ensure that the outcome of the policy measures is in line with the initial expectations, many countries apply evidence based approach, in which policy decisions are made according to existing research. However, there arises a concern whether the information is correct and timely. Traditionally, governments employ the official statistics, but such data is not always relevant and useful for researchers. As an alternative for statistical observations, the administrative data could be used as well as other alternative information sources, the most advanced of which is the Big data. Especially due to the technological development the availability of such alternative sources is constantly growing.The subject of the present paper is the international experience in using administrative data and some alternative information sources in the political decision-making process. The analysis shows that statistical offices in many countries employ administrative data reducing the cost of their own observations. Moreover there are centralized systems for accessing administrative data for research purposes. When it comes to alternative sources the role of geospatial data is noted, which is useful for urban planning, ecology or agriculture. The big data is not widely presented in public management yet; nevertheless it is the most promising information source. The result of current study could be applied in order to reform the statistical agency.