Introduction

• Why worry about understanding Ecuadorian data?

• What do some of the best articles by Ecuadorian researchers or those focused on Ecuador have in common?

  • Adão et al. (2022): The key input fed into our empirical analysis is a unique administrative data set from Ecuador that merges firm-to-firm transaction data, employer-employee matched data, owner-firm matched data, and firm-level customs transaction records.

  • Bosch and Schady (2019): To analyze the effects of transfers on the choice between formal and informal employment, we used the cédula of focal women, as reported in the 2007/08 poverty census, and merged in data on contributions to social security from IESS.

  • Rivadeneira (2023): […] I use hand-collected and digitized historical tax records from Ecuador’s Spanish colonial regime to estimate the long-run effects of a forced labor institution named concertaje.

Is a good idea enough?

• A good research question is fundamental but not enough.

• It is generally necessary to have empirical evidence to support our answer to the research question

  • This implies having information or data.

• Feasible access to data that allows answering the question defines the success of the project.

  • What data is needed?
  • Where is the data? How can it be obtained?
  • Is it easily accessible? How much time/resources are needed to obtain it?

Data Collection

• Primary data collection: direct collection of the phenomenon of interest by the researcher
  • It arises from primary sources (i.e., the respondent)
  • It can be expensive and require time.
  • Surveys, experiments, observations.
  • An ethics review board (internal review board) will be required.
• Secondary sources: information collected by other researchers or institutions, usable for our purposes.
  • Free or paid.
  • Censuses, survey data, administrative records, social media data.
• This course focuses on the use of secondary sources.

Common Issues for Ecuadorian Research Questions

• There are secondary data sources, but they are not always easy to find or access.

• Ecuador’s statistical capacity has been declining in recent years.

• Information may be limited or unavailable in useful formats/aggregations.

• Special permissions may be required.

• Data documentation may be limited, and data quality is not guaranteed.

• Formal education on the use of Ecuadorian research data is limited.

Types of Data

1. Censuses: collection of information from an entire population (or a large part of it).
   • Example: Censo de Población y Vivienda, Censo Económico.
   • Advantages: excellent coverage, large number of variables of interest.
   • Disadvantages: infrequent, not available for various situations and/or aggregations.

Types of Data

2. Surveys: collection of information from part of the population (sample).
   • Example: Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Desempleo y Subempleo (ENEMDU), Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida (ECV), Encuesta de Salud y Nutrición (ENSANUT).
   • Advantages: depending on the case, frequent updates and a large number of variables of interest, possibility of obtaining detailed information.
   • Disadvantages: limitations in coverage, information quality, generally not possible to track individuals.

Types of Data

3. Administrative data: collected by institutions, generally public, for non-research purposes, but which can still be used.
   • Example: employment records from IESS, company records from Superintendencia de Compañías.
   • Advantages: great coverage, frequent updates, possibility of tracking individual units.
   • Disadvantages: limitations in quality, inconvenient formats or access, statistical complications, lack of variables of research interest.

Various Data Presentations

• It is very important to differentiate the ways in which information is presented and how we can access it.

• For this, it is important to recognize the unit of observation of the data.

  • What is the information being collected about?

• Example: ENEMDU

  • Unit of observation: individuals (people) and households.

Types of Data Presentation

• There are different ways an institution releases data:
  • Metadata: information about the data, such as variables, codes, definitions, etc.
  • Microdata or individual data: information at the level of individuals, companies, households, etc.
  • Aggregated or tabulated data: summarized information, generally at the level of groups such as provinces, economic sectors, etc.
  • Reports: information presented in documents, generally with analysis and graphics. Also includes dynamic dashboards.
  • Database: several tables of microdata that can be joined by an identifier.

An overview of Ecuadorian data

• There are several institutions that produce data in Ecuador:
  • Public institutions (central and local governments)
  • Non-governmental initiatives (civil society)
  • International organizations
• Most easily accesible data comes from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC).
  • Every country has an institute with a mandate for statistical data collection.
  • Responsible for the administration of censuses and surveys
  • Maintains an information library for data from other institutions

An overview of Ecuadorian data

• Macroeconomic information comes from the Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE)

• Other important institutions to consider:

  • Civil Registry: demographic information
  • Internal Revenue Service (SRI): tax information
  • Superintendence of Companies: information on companies and stock market
  • Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS): employment, health, pensions

Using the INEC Website

• The website https://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/ is the main source of INEC data.
  • Data is accessed by selecting the Statistics option

INEC

Using the INEC Website

• When you have a topic in mind, you can search for statistics by topic.

INEC

Using the INEC Website

• INEC also enables searches for statistics by source: censuses, surveys, administrative records, etc.

INEC

Main Censuses

• Population and Housing Census - Censo de Población y Vivienda

• National Economic Census - Censo Nacional Económico

• National Agricultural Census - Censo Nacional Agropecuario

• Census of Environmental Economic Information in Provincial GADs - Censo de Información Económica Ambiental en los GADs Provinciales

Population and Housing Census

• On the INEC website, the information for the Population and Housing Census is only updated to 2010.

• The last census was conducted in 2022 and can be found on a separate page.

Main Surveys

• Encuesta Nacional de Empleo, Desempleo y Subempleo (ENEMDU) - Employment

• Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición (ENSANUT) - Health and Nutrition

• Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida (ECV) - Living Conditions

• Encuesta Nacional Multipropósito - Multipurpose National Survey

• Encuesta de Salud y Bienestar del Adulto Mayor (SABE) - Health and Well-being of the Elderly

ENEMDU

• Employment survey, representative at the national and urban-rural levels**.

• Conducted monthly

  • The “quarterly” and “annual” ENEMDU are aggregations of the monthly surveys.
  • Aggregations allow for greater representativeness and reduced sampling errors.

• You can access tabulations, metadata, and microdata of the ENEMDU on the INEC website.

ENEMDU Homepage

ENEMDU Homepage

ENEMDU Tabulations, Reports, and Metadata

• Accessible resources:
  • Main results (report)
  • Tabulations and historical series (tabulations)
  • Technical sheets, user guides, variable dictionaries, methodology, and syntax (metadata)
• Transition matrices allow for tracking individuals over time through the survey waves.

ENEMDU Data

• Accessible for the current period, previous years, and transition matrices.
  • Formats available: SPSS and CSV.
• Information from previous years is available on the INEC Open Data Bank

ENEMDU Data

Main Administrative Records

• Nacidos vivos and General Deaths from Registro Civil - live births

• Nacidos vivos y defunciones generales del Registro Civil (en INEC)

• Registro Estadístico de Empleo en la Seguridad Social (REESS) - major administrative record of employment

• Directorio de Compañías (Superintendencia de Compañías) - company directory

• Directorio de Empresas y Establecimientos/Registro Estadístico de Empresas (REEM) - major administrative record of companies

• Tax information from the Internal Revenue Service (SRI): cadastre, revenue, sales, purchases, tax pressure, vehicles, electronic receipts, etc.

• Electoral results from the Consejo Nacional Electoral

Useful Aggregator Websites

• Banco de Datos Abiertos INEC

• Catálogo de Datos Abiertos del Gobierno Central

• Archivo Nacional de Metadatos Estadísticos INEC

International Surveys

• AmericasBarometer

• World Values Survey

• Latinobarómetro

International Data Sets

• World Bank
  • World Development Indicators (WDI)
  • Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI)

Open Data Initiatives

• Open Data Ecuador

• INEC Open Data

• Open Government Quito

Civil Sector Initiatives

• Datalat

• Fundación Ciudadanía y Desarrollo

  • Observatorio de la Contratación Pública
  • Observatorio Legislativo