ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors discuss measurement, and some of the concerns that it brings. They also discusses other government official statistics, and long-standing surveys. All datasets have shortcomings. In this chapter, they develop comfort with “farmed data”. Measurement is an old concern. Even Aristotle distinguished between quantities and qualities. Measurement, and especially, the comparison of measurements, underpins all quantitative analysis. There are a variety of sources of data that have been produced for the purposes of being used as datasets. More recently there has been a large push toward open data in government. The requirement for a census is included in the United States Constitution, although births and deaths were legally required to be registered in what became Massachusetts as early as 1639. Non-probability samples have an important role to play because they are typically cheaper and quicker to obtain than probability samples.
