Operationalising ‘safe statistics’: the case of linear regression

Felix Ritchie ()

Working Papers from Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol

Abstract: The recent growth in research access to confidential government microdata has prompted the development of more general 'output-based statistical disclosure control' (OSDC) methods which go beyond tabular protection. Central to OSDC is the concept of 'safe/unsafe statistics', allowing researchers and facility owners to make informed judgments about the types of research output that pose a disclosure risk. While increasingly accepted in specialist environments, in the wider community this novel approach causes some concern: how can 'safe' be unconditional? This paper therefore demonstrates the new approach using linear regression, a key research output, as an example. In doing so, the paper reconsiders the objectivity of SDC decision-making, arguing that ‘safety’ be explicitly acknowledged as a relative concept.

Keywords: statistical disclosure control; confidentiality; safe statistics; regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C18 C20 C81 C89 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-01-10
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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