Big Data Techniques for Supporting Official Statistics

Abstract

Following the advent of Big Data, statistical offices have been largely exploring the use of Internet as data source for modernizing their data collection process. Particularly, prices are collected online in several statistical institutes through a technique known as web scraping. The objective of the chapter is to discuss the challenges of web scraping for setting up a continuous data collection process, exploring and classifying the more widespread techniques and presenting how they are used in practical cases. The main technical notions behind web scraping are presented and explained in order to give also to readers with no background in IT the sufficient elements to fully comprehend scraping techniques, promoting the building of mixed skills that is at the core of the spirit of modern data science. Challenges for official statistics deriving from the use of web scraping are briefly sketched. Finally, research ideas for overcoming the limitations of current techniques are presented and discussed.