I've been looking at some work done for the World Bank, which routinely uses multivariate methods, including e.g. factor analysis, multiple regression and probit, at local level. It's my impression that these methods are mainly used in the UK at national level (e.g. in the IMD) or in specialised research studies, but they seem to be rarely used for local agencies and projects. This is probably for good reasons: the quality of data has to be high, because the methods are very vulnerable to distortion by irregular or defective sources, and the work involved in data analysis to protect against the vulnerabilities or violation of the assumptions is considerable. If that's right, it raises a question whether the World Bank is not expecting higher standards of data at local level in developing countries than we have in Europe.
Is my impression right, though? Is it still true that local agencies in the UK generally don't do this kind of thing? Are there fields of activity where this kind of analysis is now routinely done at local level, e.g. in health trusts or local government? Can anyone tell me?
Paul Spicker
Professor of Public Policy
Centre for Public Policy and Management
The Robert Gordon University
Garthdee Road
Aberdeen AB10 7QE
Scotland
Tel: +44 1224263120
Fax: + 44 1224263434
Website: http://www.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/
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