Evidence-informed policy-making in a data-driven age: The role and limits of official statistics
By: Steve MacFeely and Ashley Ward
References
- Agar, J. (2001). Turing and the universal machine – The making of the modern computer. Icon Books Ltd.
- American Statistical Association. (2025). The nation’s data at risk: 2025 report. www.amstat.org/policy-and-advocacy/the-nations-data-at-risk—2025-report
- Bernstein, P. L. (1996). Against the gods: The remarkable story of risk. John Wiley & Sons.
- Boaz, A., Grayson, L., Levitt, R. & Solesbury, W. (2018). Does evidence-based policy work? Learning from the UK experience. Evidence & Policy – A Journal of Research Debate and Practice, 4(2), 233–53.
- Borgman, C. L. (2015). Big Data, little data, no data scholarship in the networked world. MIT Press.
- Box, G. E. P. (1976). Science and statistics. JASA, 71, 791–9.
- Central Statistics Office. (2013). Irish Statistical System Code of Practice (ISSCoP). www.nationaldata.ie/Standards/ISSCoP/CodeofPractice/
- Central Statistics Office. (2016). Report of the Economic Statistics Review Group (ESRG). www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/newsevents/documents/reportoftheeconomicstatisticsreviewgroup/Economic_Statistics_Review_(ESRG)_Report_Dec_2016.pdf
- Central Statistics Office. (2019). Labour force survey Q4-2019. Background notes. www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/lfs/labourforcesurveylfsquarter4 2019/
- Central Statistics Office. (2025). Labour force survey Q4-2025. Background notes. www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/plfs/labourforcesurveyquarter42025/backgroundnotes/
- Central Statistics Office. (2026). CSO data strategy 2026–2028. www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/cp/cp-ds/csodatastrategy2026-2028/
- Clarke, D. et al. (2022). CO2 emissions from air transport: A near-real-time global database for policy analysis. OECD Statistics Working Papers, No. 2022/04, OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/ecc9f16b-en
- Davis, E. (2017). Post truth: Peak bullshit and what we can do about it. Abacus.
- Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. (2010). Public service agreement 2010–2014. www.gov.ie/en/office-of-public-works/publications/public-service-agreement-2010-2014-croke-park-agreement/
- Desrosières, A. (2010). Words and numbers: For a sociology of the statistical argument. In, A.R. Saetnan, H.M. Lomell and S. Hammer (eds), The mutual construction of statistics and the society. Taylor & Francis Group.
- De Queljoe, M. et al. (2025). Analysing recent trends and drivers of maritime transport CO2 emissions: Insights from a decomposition analysis for the OECD and the world. OECD Statistics Working Papers, No. 2025/03, OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/6bb2bd69-en
- European Commission. (2017). European statistics code of practice. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/fr/web/products-catalogues/-/ks-02-18-142
- European Commission. (2024). Regulation (EU) 2024/3018 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2024 amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics. https://eurlex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202403018
- Eurostat. (2024). Report by Eurostat on the revision of the Greek Government deficit and debt figures. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/greece
- Ferguson, N. (2022). Doom. Penguin Books.
- Fogel, R., Fogel. E. M., Guglielmo, M. & Grotte, N. (2013). Political arithmetic: Simon Kuznets and the empirical tradition in economics. University of Chicago Press.
- Fukuda-Parr, S. & McNeill, D. (2019). Knowledge and politics in setting and measuring the SDGs: Introduction to special issue. Global Policy, 10(1), 5–15.
- Gitelman, L. (Ed.). (2013). ‘Raw data’ is an oxymoron. MIT Press.
- Government of Ireland. (2017). Our Public Service 2020 – Development and Innovation, December 2017. https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/our-public-service-public-service-reform-plan-2020.pdf
- Johnson, D. S., Meinhardt, M. & Sabelhaus, J. (2026). Why did people stop responding to federal economic surveys? What can be done? Brookings Commentary. www.brookings.edu/articles/why-did-people-stop-responding-to-federal-economic-surveys-what-can-be-done/
- Karabell, Z. (2014). The leading indicators – A short history of the numbers that rule our world. Simon and Schuster.
- King, M. (2016). The end of alchemy – Money, banking and the future of the global economy. Little, Brown Book Group.
- Labour Relations Commission. (2013). Public service stability agreement 2013–2016: The Haddington Road agreement. https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/haddington-road-agreement.pdf
- Livera, J. (2025). Beyond the hype: Why generative AI can’t be the final word on data accuracy. Finn Partners. www.finnpartners.com/news-insights/beyond-the-hype-why-generative-ai-cant-be-the-final-word-on-data-accuracy/#:%E2%88%BC:text=AI%20Accuracy%3A%20Generative%20AI%20often,miss%20critical%20nuances%20in%20research
- Luce, E. (2017). The retreat of Western liberalism. Little, Brown Books.
- MacFeely, S. (2020). In search of the data revolution: Has the official statistics paradigm shifted? Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 36, 1075–94.
- MacFeely, S. (2026). The role of AI in Official Statistics: Black hole or worm hole? Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 42(1), 218–24.
- MacFeely, S. & Barnat, N. (2017). Statistical capacity building for sustainable development: Developing the fundamental pillars necessary for modern national statistical systems. Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 33(4), 895–909.
- MacFeely, S. & Dunne, J. (2026). Joining up public service information: The rationale for a national data infrastructure. Administration, 74(1), 133–49. https:doi.org/10.2478/admin-2026-0009
- MacFeely, S. & Nastav, B. (2019). You say you want a [data] revolution: A proposal to use unofficial statistics for the SDG Global Indicator Framework. Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 35, 309–27.
- MacFeely, S. & Ward, A. (2025, 7 May). From evidence-informed to data-driven. OECD Statistics Blog. https://oecdstatistics.blog/2025/05/07/from-evidence-informed-to-data-driven/
- Mahajan, M. (2019). The IHME in the shifting landscape of global health metrics. Global Policy, 10(1), 110–20.
- Marawala, T. (2024). Never assume that the accuracy of artificial intelligence information equals the truth, UN University. https://unu.edu/article/never-assume-accuracy-artificial-intelligence-information-equals-truth
- Masood, E. (2016). The great invention: The story of GDP and the making and unmaking of the modern world. Pegasus Books Ltd.
- Mink, R. (2022). Official statistics – A plaything of politics? Springer Nature.
- Morgan, O. (2025). The curious case of “Machine Bullshit”. Artificial Public Health Intelligence. https://aipublichealth.substack.com/p/the-curious-case-of-machine-bullshit
- Muller, J. Z. (2018). The tyranny of metrics. Princeton University Press.
- Nakkan, C. (2025). Statistics in shambles: The crisis at the Office for National Statistics. Intergenerational Foundation. www.if.org.uk/2025/09/18/statistics-in-shambles-the-crisis-at-the-office-for-national-statistics/
- National Statistics Board. (2003). Strategy for statistics 2003–2008. www.nsb.ie/media/nsbie/pdfdocs/StrategyforStatistics2003-2008.pdf
- National Statistics Board. (2021). Quality information for all: Numbers matter. National Statistics Board strategic priorities for official statistics 2021–2026. www.nsb.ie/media/nsbie/pdfdocs/NSB_Statement_of_Strategy_2021_2026.pdf
- National Statistics Board. (2025). Numbers matter –mid-term review. National Statistics Board strategic priorities for official statistics 2021–2026. www.nsb.ie/media/nsbie/pdfdocs/NSB_Statement_of_Strategy_Mid-term_Review_-_Jan_2025_-_ENG.pdf
- Office for Statistics Regulation. (2026). The list of cancelled/suspended accreditations. https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/accredited-official-statistics/
- Oireachtas. (1993). Statistics Act, 1993. Number 21 of 1993. www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1993/act/21/enacted/en/html
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2016). Are the Irish 26.3% better off? www.oecd.org/en/data/insights/data-explainers/2016/10/irish-gdp-up-by-26-per-cent-in-2015.html
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2019). Recommendation of the Council on Good Statistical Practice. https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0417
- PARIS21. (2005). Models of statistical systems. Document Series No. 6. 2005. www.paris21.org/sites/default/files/2101.pdf
- PARIS21. (2025). Data-driven policymaking? The politics, people and practices behind gender data use. www.paris21.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2025-10/gender-data-use.pdf
- Patinkin, D. (1976). Keynes and econometrics: On the interaction between the macroeconomic revolutions of the inter war period. Econometrica, 44(6), 1091–123.
- Pilgrim, G., Dorville, Y. & Mourougane, A. (2026). Monitoring global trade by products, using Big Data. OECD Statistics Working Papers, No. 2026/02. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/e0447f00-en
- Pilling, D. (2018). The growth delusion. The wealth and well-being of nations. Bloomsbury Academic.
- Rosling, H., Rosling, O. & Rosling-Ronnlund, A. (2018). Factfulness: Ten reasons we’re wrong about the world – and why things are better than you think. Flatiron Books.
- Rostow, W. W. (1959). The stages of economic growth. The Economic History Review. Second Series, 12(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.1959.tb01829.x
- Rudder, C. (2014). Dataclysm: What our online lives tell us about our offline selves. 4th Estate.
- Stuart, H. (2024, 3 December). ONS inability to fix labour force survey until 2027 ‘a major blow’, MPs hear. The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/03/ons-replace-labour-force-survey-uk-jobs-market
- Taylor, A. J. P. (1961). The origins of the Second World War. Simon and Schuster.
- Tenner, E. (2018). The efficiency paradox: What Big Data can’t do. Alfred A. Knopf.
- United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2026). Trade nowcast. https://unctadstat.unctad.org/EN/Nowcasts.html
- United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2025). Handbook on management and organization of national statistical systems. Version 2025/A. https://projects.officialstatistics.org/hb-mgnt-orgnss/handbook/intro.html
- United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. (2025). Generative AI for official statistics. HLG-MOS report. https://unece.org/statistics/documents/2025/09/reports/generative-ai-official-statistics-hlg-mos-report
- United Nations General Assembly. (2014). Fundamental principles of official statistics. A/RES/68/261. https://unstats.un.org/unsd/dnss/gp/FP-New-E.pdf
- Verhulst, S. G. (2024). Are we entering a “Data Winter”? Medium, 23 January. https://sverhulst.medium.com/are-we-entering-a-data-winter-f654eb8e8663
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/admin-2026-0020 | Journal eISSN: 2449-9471 (formerly 0001-8325) | Journal ISSN: 0001-8325
Language: English
Page range: 31 - 52
Published on: Sep 19, 2026
Published by: The Institute of Public Administration of Ireland
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
Related subjects:
© 2026 Steve MacFeely, Ashley Ward, published by The Institute of Public Administration of Ireland
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.