The public value of learning using administrative data

Sound policymaking is based on evidence, where data plays a central role. This is emphasised in the Better Regulation Agenda of the European Union. Digitalised information systems for delivering public services contain a wealth of data on the effects of policies on citizens, firms and the environment. This data, called "administrative", can be used, with safeguards for privacy protection, to learn about the effects of policies. Administrative data presents several advantages: it covers the entire population, it is often measurement-error free, the cost of its collection, maintenance and update is covered by its primary use. An increased use of administrative data for learning what works would hence both increase knowledge about "how policies work" and increase the safety of the data itself. All the stakeholders would gain from a better access to administrative sources: the research community would improve the quality (and quantity) of relevant publications, policymakers and citizens would learn how policies work and hence how to improve them, firms and markets would have more transparency on the way markets and regulation function. Nonetheless several barriers still exist for an increased use of administrative data, which mostly lie in asymmetric information about the costs of inaction and the benefits of the increased use of admin data. This book aims to contribute to fill this gap. Implementing the necessary change involves several hurdles: safe IT infrastructure to allow remote access to data; transparent, accountable and open rules for access; state-of-the art data protection. Many of these requirements imply that data would not be transferred outside the institutions where it is generated, but it could be linked with appropriate techniques. Many European countries are at different level of development. One of the purposes of this book is to give account of the variety of solutions (or lack thereof) in different countries. This heterogeneity implies that one country could learn from experience of others. A first part of this book is devoted to the experience of the different EU countries, from a data-user perspective. A second part of the book is devoted to what all the stakeholders would gain in specific policy areas, including active labour market policies, inequality, health, environment, mobility, crime, migration and innovation. This shows a subsidiarity dimension in setting up similar systems across Europe, and the positive externalities associated with learning across EU borders. The book lends itself to a three-level reading. First, it provides data users and the research community with a map on how to get access to admin data in the European Union; this may enhance comparative studies and research competition and collaborations. Second, the data-holding institutions find a host of experience from other countries on how to manage and possibly improve data access, with proper safeguards. Third, policymakers both at the national and the EU level can identify specific areas of intervention to foster concrete steps towards better access to data, in line with the Better Regulation Agenda. Authorship of the chapters has been chosen with a balance across research fields, gender, age, country.