A Ranking of Combined Nomenclature Chapters According to Quality of Data on Intra‑Community Trade in Goods of Polish Businesses

Iwona Markowicz; Paweł Baran

doi:10.18778/0208-6018.343.12

Authors

Iwona Markowicz University of Szczecin, Faculty of Economics and Management, Department of Econometrics and Statistics http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1119-0789
Paweł Baran University of Szczecin, Faculty of Economics and Management, Department of Operations Research and Applied Mathematics in Economics http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7687-4041

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/0208-6018.343.12

Keywords:

statistical data quality, international trade, INTRASTAT, analysis of mirror data

Abstract

Adopting the Intrastat system in Poland on its EU‑accession on 1st May, 2004 imposed a new obligation on companies trading goods within the EU. They are obliged to provide information on their intra‑Community trade in the form of monthly declarations. Data on intra‑Community trade from all Member States are collected by Eurostat and disseminated in the form of the Comext database. In public statistics, special attention is being paid to data quality. It is constantly monitored and certain actions are taken to improve it. In order to assess quality of data on intra‑Community trade, the authors have calculated differences between declared values of supplies of goods from Poland as well as foreign acquisitions originating in Poland. The aims of the paper are an analysis of quality of data on Polish intra‑Community trade in goods within Combined Nomenclature chapters as well as creating a ranking of chapters with regard to data accuracy (one of quality dimensions) which we define in terms of divergence between mirror data. Data accuracy was measured with the use of aggregate data quality indices. The ranking of Combined Nomenclature (CN) chapters was presented according to the calculated index value for both intra‑Community supplies of goods (ICS) and intra‑Community acquisitions (ICA). We utilised data on Polish exporters’ transactions from 2017 from the Comext database. In the research results, we indicate those chapters for which large relative discrepancies between mirror data are observed (thus data quality is low). For chapters with low data quality, we present inner structures of discrepancies by country and by CN position. The problem of quality of data on intra‑Community trade is addressed in Poland only in publications of the Central Statistical Office/Statistics Poland. There are no scientific publications on this subject. Therefore, the authors decided to fill this gap and conduct research on sources of information which is the basis for many economic analyses.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ainsworth R. T. (2009), The Morphing of MTIC Fraud: VAT Fraud Infects Tradable CO2 Permits, Boston University School of Law Working Paper No. 09–35.
Google Scholar

Baran P., Markowicz I. (2018a), Analysis of intra‑Community supply of goods shipped from Poland, [in:] M. Papież, S. Śmiech (eds.), Socio‑Economic Modelling and Forecasting, no. 1, The 12th Professor Aleksander Zeliaś International Conference on Modelling and Forecasting of Socio‑Economic Phenomena, Conference Proceedings, Zakopane, pp. 12–21.
Google Scholar

Baran P., Markowicz I. (2018b), Behavioral Economics and Rationality of Certain Economic Activities. The Case of Intra‑Community Supplies, [in:] K. Nermend, M. Łatuszyńska (eds.), Problems, Methods and Tools in Experimental and Behavioral Economics, Proceedings of Computational Methods in Experimental Economics (CMEE) 2017 Conference, Springer, Cham, pp. 285–299.
Google Scholar

Borselli F. (2008), Pragmatic Policies to Tackle VAT Fraud in the European Union, “International Vat Monitor”, September/October, pp. 333–342.
Google Scholar

European Court of Auditors (2016), Tackling intra‑Community VAT fraud: More action needed, Special Report, no. 24, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
Google Scholar

European Union (2018), European Statistics Code of Practice, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
Google Scholar

Eurostat (2003), Standard Quality Report. Methodological Documents, Working Group Assessment of quality in statistics, Luxembourg.
Google Scholar

Eurostat (2007), Handbook on Data Quality Assessment: Methods and Tools, Luxembourg.
Google Scholar

Eurostat (2013), Handbook on improving quality by analysis of process variables, Luxembourg.
Google Scholar

Eurostat (2017a), Compilers guide on European statistics on international trade in goods, 2017 edition, Manuals and guidelines, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
Google Scholar

Eurostat (2017b), National requirements for the Intrastat system, 2018 edition, Manuals and guidelines, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
Google Scholar

Federico G., Tena A. (1991), On the Accuracy of Foreign Trade Statistics (1909–l935), Morgenstern Revisited, “Explorations in Economic History”, no. 28, pp. 259–273.
Google Scholar

GUS (2018a), Handel zagraniczny. Polska w Unii Europejskiej, Warszawa.
Google Scholar

GUS (2018b), Handel zagraniczny. Statystyka lustrzana i statystyka asymetrii, Warszawa.
Google Scholar

Hamanaka S. (2012), Whose trade statistics are correct? Multiple mirror comparison techniques: a test of Cambodia, “Journal of Economic Policy Reform”, no. 15(1), pp. 33–56.
Google Scholar

Keen M., Smith S. (2007), VAT Fraud and Evasion: What Do We Know, and What Can Be Done?, IMF Working Papers, 07/31, pp. 1–33.
Google Scholar

Kim S. Y. (2017), An analytical approach to detect MTIC/MTEC VAT fraud involving energy trading, IOTA Papers 12, pp. 1–7.
Google Scholar

Markowicz I., Baran P. (2019), Jakość danych statystycznych dotyczących obrotów towarowych między krajami Unii Europejskiej, “Wiadomości Statystyczne. The Polish Statistician”, no. 1, pp. 7–19.
Google Scholar

Morgenstern O. (1965), On the accuracy of economic observation, 2nd ed., Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Google Scholar

Parniczky G. (1980), On the Inconsistency of World Trade Statistics, “International Statistical Review”, no. 48(1), pp. 43–48.
Google Scholar

Pope S., Stone R. (2009), Civil interventions for tackling MTIC fraud: a UK perspective, “Amicus Curiae”, issue 80, pp. 8–13.
Google Scholar

Tsigas M. E., Hertel T. W., Binkley J. K. (1992), Estimates of systematic reporting biases in trade statistics, “Economic Systems Research”, no. 4(4), pp. 297–310.
Google Scholar

United Nations Economic and Social Council (1974), International Trade Reconciliation Study, E/CN.3/454.
Google Scholar