A Generic Data Model for Statistical Indicators and Measurement Units to Enable User-Specific Representation Formats Michaela Denk1, Wilfried Grossmann2 1International Monetary Fund, Statistics Department*, e-mail:
[email protected] 2University of Vienna, Institute for Scientific Computing, e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract Based on a review of existing standards and guidelines as well as the current international practice of modeling measurement units and related concepts in representation of economic and statistical data, a generic data model for statistical indicators and measurement units is introduced that may contribute to the further development of the SDMX content oriented guidelines in terms of harmonizing cross-domain concepts such as measurement units. Examples from databases of SDMX sponsor organizations are used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed data model to a broad range of statistical indicators and its ability to serve as a basis for the creation of user-specific data representation formats. This is achieved through customizable combinations of the structural elements of the generic data model according to user requirements and illustrates the practical relevance of the presented ideas. Keywords: Metadata, SDMX, semantic decomposition. 1. Introduction In data exchange the concept of indicator plays a crucial role. Proper understanding of the indicator depends on knowledge of how the indicator was calculated and what kinds of units are used for measurement. The SDMX Content Oriented Guidelines (COG) (2009) can be regarded as the most prominent current effort focusing on the harmonization of cross-domain concepts for data exchange. The guidelines recommend practices for creating interoperable data and metadata sets using the SDMX technical standards with the intent of generic applicability across subject-matter domains.