> the lack of X statistics has contributed to problem Y The term "contribution" implies active impact on a problem. It comes from the Latin "contribuere" whic

> the lack of X statistics has contributed to problem Y The term "contribution" implies active impact on a problem. It comes from the Latin "contribuere" which means to "bring together" or to "add". If X contributes to Y, you should be able to measure the contribution, but there's no way to measure the impact of something that never existed in the first place.