Statistical Terms Glossary

They cover the costs associated with the reduction of activities or complete abstention and the changes in production and consumption patterns. In some cases this may be a very cost effective way to make considerable savings on environmental pollution with little direct impact on GDP. These costs can normally only be estimated by modelling or by assumption.

The SAF was established by the IMF in 1986 and is no longer operational. The ESAF was established by the IMF in 1987 and was made a permanent, rather than a temporary, facility in September 1996. It was renamed the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility in November 1999.

Facility created by the International Monetary Fund in March 1986 to provide balance of payments assistance on concessional terms to low income developing countries. The resources will consist of assets received in the Special Disbursement Account as a result of the termination of the Trust Fund.

A World Bank instrument prevalent in the 1980s that focused on correcting the major macroeconomic distortions hindering development.

Gender inequalities in social structures, based on institutionalized conceptions of gender differences. Conceptions of masculinity and femininity, expectations of women and men, judgements of women’s and men’s actions, prescribed rules about behaviour of women and men –all of these, and more, create and maintain gender inequality in social structures. Social and cultural environments, as well as the institutions that structure them and the individuals that operate within and outside these institutions, are engaged in the production and reproduction of gender norms, attitudes and stereotypes.

A structural break is a structural change detected in a time series sample.

The structural budget balance represents what government revenues and expenditure would be if output were at its potential level

Data on the basic organizational structure of agricultural holdings that do not change quickly over time, such as farm size and land use.

An analytical technique allowing to identify and quantify the factors of the changes in emissions over time.

A form of discrimination resulting from policies, despite apparently being neutral, that have disproportionately negative effects on certain societal groups.

Checks based on a logical relationship between two or more edited fields. For example, a total must equal the sum of its parts: or, because of a skip pattern inherent in a questionnaire, two variables lying on disjoint paths cannot both be non-zero. A structural edit ensures that the structure of the questionnaire is maintained in the data record.

Structural funds are funds intended to facilitate structural adjustment of specific sectors, regions, or combinations of both, in the European Union. They include the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), the Guidance Section of European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG). Assistance is concentrated on three priority objectives, two regional and a horizontal objective for human resources.

Structural imputation is used when a structural relationship holds between several variables. For example, a total must equal the sum of its parts: therefore, for a mother, children ever born must equal children alive plus children who have died.

Embedding of gender inequalities in social structures, based on institutionalised conceptions of gender differences.

Model that considers the structure of the stock by ages or sizes. This kind of model allows one to analyse the effects on catches and biomasses, due to changes in the fishing level and exploitation pattern.

Is the rate of unemployment consistent with constant wage inflation (non-accelerating wage rate of unemployment (NAWRU)), or constant price inflation (non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU)), given current economic conditions.

Violence without a clear actor, and which is built into and inherent in the structure of a society.

Structured bonds have characteristics that are designed to attract a certain type of investor and/or take advantage of particular market circumstances. However, structuring securities to appeal to a particular type of investor risks the possibility of a loss of liquidity if the market moves in such a way as to make the structured features of the issue no longer attractive. Typically the structured features are achieved through the use of derivatives—for instance, a credit-linked note is a bond with an embedded credit derivative.

The structured floating-rate note is a variation of a standard variable-rate bond (that is, a long-dated debt security whose coupon payment is reset periodically by reference to an independent interest rate index such as six-month LIBOR).

Is one in which the questions asked are precisely decided in advance. When used as an interviewing method, the questions are asked exactly as they are written, in the same sequence, using the same style, for all interviews. Nonetheless, the structured questionnaire can sometimes be left a bit open for the interviewer to amend to suit a specific context.

It refers to the person (aged 10 years and above) who is currently continuing his \ her studies in order to obtain certain qualifications, and was not engaged in any work during the reference period. It is worthy to note that housework and hobbies are not included in work definition.

A study domain is a major segment of the population for which separate statistics are needed. A domain could consist of a geographical area such as a region or major population centre. It could also comprise a specified population category, such as a major national or ethnic group. The number of domains has an important bearing on the size and distribution of the sample.

There are two basic measures of study load: time in the classroom and progress towards a qualification. Time in classroom attempts to measure the amount of instruction time that a student receives and can be counted as hours of instruction per day or year, counts of the number of courses taken, or a combination of the two. These measures are based on characteristics of the course or on patterns of attendance, not on the programme in which the student is enrolled. Because of this, such measures of study load will be useful when there is no programme structure or when programme structures are not comparable. The second measure of study load is the unit used to measure progress towards a qualification. Such measures focus less on the amount of instruction and more on the “academic value” of that instruction. It is conceivable, therefore, those courses with the same quantity of instruction may have different academic values and they would only be the same if measures of academic progress were made in amounts of instruction.

The price paid by the feller to the owner of the forest for standing timber.

A simplified net present value method where the value of the stock is obtained by multiplying the current volume of standing timber by its stumpage price, assuming the rate of discount is equal to the natural growth rate.

Low height for age.