a. rosolia, r. kirchner and f. mouriaux ( 2020 ), ‘ covid - 19 and official statistics : a wakeup call? ’, banca d ’ italia, deutsche bundesbank and banque de france. forthcoming in proceedings of the 8th imf statistical forum : measuring the economics of a pandemic. forecasting macroeconomic variables and the relevance of nontraditional sources of information, especially when it is impossible to run a classical survey, as was the case during the covid - 19 pandemic. besides its long history of cooperation with commercial banks, with istat ( our national statistical institute ) and other public institutions, banca d ’ italia has already started to collect nontraditional data from social media, newspapers, payment platforms and on real estate and home mortgages. the harnessing of larger data sets, faster computational power, and more advanced analytical techniques is spurring progress on a range of micro - and macroeconomic problems. at banca d ’ italia, we approached the data deluge by building a multidisciplinary team of economists, statisticians, econometricians, mathematicians, engineers and it specialists. by connecting these data experts with their frontline colleagues, we began to identify projects that can increase both the accuracy and performance of our policy action. 5. the big data revolution poses some fundamental challenges. let me briefly mention two of them. first, big data can lose their statistical relevance if they are not used in a methodologically sound way. such data typically target only a particular layer of the population ; increasing the sample size will not improve the accuracy of estimates if the estimation methods do not correct for this kind of distortion. social media data for example, like many other internet - based sources of big data, are usually based on a biased sample of the population. second, the availability of a huge amount of data raises the importance of its integrity, confidentiality and privacy. personal data protection is central to our societies. the sheer amount of personal data now available, and the growing ease with which individual information can be connected across databases, have far - reaching implications for privacy and freedom. indeed, this has prompted the development of regulations concerning the treatment of digital data ( think of the gdpr or the ccpa in california ). 4 rules on data management are sometimes different across jurisdictions and data domains. ideally, one would like to have global standards. therefore, international cooperation is to be

impact of climate change, for example through mitigating measures ( such as reforestation ) and enabling ecosystems to be more resilient to higher temperatures ( for instance, through the management of land and water resources to prevent desertification ). in industrialized countries, women ’ s greater eco - awareness places them in an ideal position to actively participate in setting policies that can attenuate the utilization of natural resources and limit the harmful effects of consumption and production on the environment. the presence of a greater number of women entrepreneurs in innovative sectors, such as the green economy, is also key to achieve these goals. even simple actions can help to reduce our impact on the ecosystem : conservation of resources ( by water and energy saving ) and pollution control ( for example, more ecofriendly means of transport and producing less household waste ). the literal meaning of economics is “ household management ” and women have traditionally been the frugal, pragmatic, responsible and farsighted managers of home and family. the same can be true for the environment – home to us all. almost twenty years ago, the rio declaration proclaimed that “ women have a vital role in environmental management and development. their full participation is therefore essential to achieve sustainable development ”. now is the time to translate this declaration into action to ensure a better, fairer and more sustainable future, for all of us and for generations to come. amartya sen sees this extension of freedom, and not just greater physical wellbeing as the key to overcoming women ’ s subordination in the less developed countries. the same conclusions can be extended to the socially excluded in the developed countries. sen a. ( 2001 ), development as freedom, o. u. p., 1999.