1 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Using Food Stamp Identifiers in the CE Diary Survey:

Opportunities and Challenges

Lisa Boily, Economist

Consumer Expenditure Microdata 

User’s Workshop

July 20, 2023
2 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Meet the authors!

Lisa K. Boily

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Link

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2022/article/

snap-participation-and-food-at-homeexpenditures-through-the-great-recessionunited-states-and-the-new-york-area.htm

Article

SNAP participation and food-at-home 

expenditures through the Great Recession: 

United States and the New York Area
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Research Questions

1. Did the Great Recession impact the characteristics of SNAP participants?

2. How were food expenditure patterns of SNAP participants and nonparticipants impacted by the Great Recession? 

3. How did the New York area differ from the rest of the U.S.?
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Challenges
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Geography of CE data

 National

 U.S. Census regions: Northeast, Midwest, South, and West

 Selected metropolitan areas
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To weight or not to weight...
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United States or rest of United States?
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Grains: any food made from 

wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, 

barley or another cereal 

grain. Examples include: 

bread, pasta, oatmeal, 

breakfast cereals, tortillas, 

and grits.

Grains: cereal or cereal products, 

grain, and bakery product.

Note that bakery products, 

includes cakes and sweet rolls, 

in addition to bread.

Working with variables as defined

MyPlate Defined for paper
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Quality of Response

 FINCBEFX: Family income 

before taxes

 FINCAFTX: Family income 

after taxes

 How to handle negative 

income

 Check with a CE Expert
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CE Survey is not a time series
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Changing area definitions

Overlap

2005-2014

2015-2024

The fix:

Use state identifiers to delete 

Connecticut and Pennsylvania 

observations to allow for 

maximum geographic continuity
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Continuity of Variables

Variables HISP_REF/HISP2 

 Capture the Hispanic origin of 

the CU reference person and 

CU spouse. 

 Introduced with 2009 data 

set; not available for earlier 

years

Workaround: Substitution

Use HORREF1/HORREF2 with 

data available from 2003 

forward 
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Dictionary for Interview and Diary Survey (XLSX)

Variables from 1996 forward: 

www.bls.gov/cex/pumd_doc.htm

Resource for Checking Variable Continuity
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The CE Community

 Annual user’s conference

 Expansion of professional network

 Source of expert advice on limitations and uses of CE data

 Opportunity for collaboration
Contact Information

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Lisa Boily - Economist

Northeast Information Office

646-264-3619

boily.lisa@bls.gov