REDUCING THE RESPONSE BURDEN - SOME DEVELOPMENTS IN THE NETHERLANDS

The so-called administrative burden (response burden, form-filling bur den, paper burden) of businesses has become a political issue in many countries. Official statisticians are therefore under increasing press ure to make their data collection methods less burdensome. This paper gives an overview of developments in The Netherlands. In particular, i t discusses Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) as an instrument to both reduce the form-filling burden and improve the efficiency of data cap ture, as well as the quality of statistics at the same time. To the ex tent that EDI gains ground, it will encompass dramatic changes in the operations of statistical offices.