Statistical Terms Glossary

In performance assessment in government, outputs are defined as the goods or services produced by government agencies (e.g., teaching hours delivered, welfare benefits assessed and paid); outcomes are defined as the impacts on social, economic, or other indicators arising from the delivery of outputs (e.g., student learning, social equity).

Contracting, sub-contracting, or 'externalizing' non-core activities to free up cash, personnel, time, and facilities for activities where the firm holds competitive advantage. Firms having strengths in other areas may contract-out data processing, legal, manufacturing, marketing, payroll accounting, or other aspects of their businesses to concentrate on what they do best and thus reduce average unit cost. Outsourcing is often an integral part of downsizing or reengineering. Also called contracting out.

Outsourcing refers to the purchasing of intermediate goods and services from outside specialist providers at arm’s length either nationally or internationally.

See Foreign Affiliates Trade in Services (FATS)

Refers to direct investments made abroad.

Outward statistics on foreign affiliates describe the activity of foreign affiliates abroad controlled by the compiling economy.

Spot purchase of foreign exchange and forward resale of the same currency against domestic currency.

Movement of domestic currency assets into foreign currency.

Outworkers are workers who hold explicit or implicit contracts of employment under which they agree to work for a particular enterprise, or to supply a certain quantity of goods or services to a particular enterprise, by prior arrangement or contract with that enterprise, but; whose place of work is not within any of the establishments which make up that enterprise.

Inadequate employment related to excessive hours (also called “overemployment”) is defined as “a situation where persons in employment wanted or sought to work less hours than they did during the reference period, either in the same job or in another job, accepting a corresponding reduction of income”.

Excessive irrigation with regard to the actual requirements due to excessive doses of watering, an insufficient irrigation interval or an overestimation of the requirements.

Market for securities not listed in any of the exchanges (about 80 percent of total securities in he U.S.). In the U.S. includes U.S. Government and agency issues, state and local government bonds, railroad bonds and shares, many public utility bonds and shares, and most corporation and bank shares.

Option not listed on the regular options exchanges.

The purpose of the Scheme is to provide cattle producers with an alternative market for cattle aged over thirty months which have come to the end of their productive lives and can no longer be entered into the human or animal food chain as a result of the Over Thirty Month Rule. The OTM Rule bans meat from most cattle aged over 30 months at slaughter from being sold for human consumption. This is to remove older animals which are more likely to have developed a significant amount of BSE agent in any tissue, from the human food chain. It applies equally to home-produced and imported meat.

A special loan issued to cover excess costs on a project.

The overall efficiency, also known as project efficiency (Ep), comprises conveyance efficiency (Ec), field canal efficiency (Eb), and field application efficiency (Ea).

Assigns the item mean for passed edit records to the missing or inconsistent item for all failed edit records.