ADMINISTRATIVE DATA AND MODEL BASED ESTIMATION IN ITALIAN AGRICULTURE STATISTICS

Actually, agricultural surfaces are estimated by the Italian National Statistical Institute (IS-TAT) through experts evaluations. The present work has two purposes: 1) to improve the use of administrative data for increasing reliability of crop statistics; 2) to improve methodology for relea-sing crop early estimates. IACS administrative data are available within a short time lag, cover all the main crops and may substitute estimates gradually. As regards early estimates, the usual design based estimation strategy may be improved through double sampling and model based regression. Results show good reliability of administrative data and decrease of estimates variances using mo-del based estimation.