Results from Testing a Web 

Mode for the Consumer 

Expenditure Diary Survey

Ian Elkin, Laura Erhard, Brett McBride, and Dawn 

Nelson

Consumer Expenditure Survey Division/U.S. 

Census Bureau

CE Survey Methods Symposium

July 15, 2014
Presentation Outline

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I. Web Diary Overview

II. Results – Sample Performance

III. Results – Expenditure Comparisons

IV. Findings and Recommendations
I. WEB DIARY OVERVIEW

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Consumer Expenditure Diary 

Overview

 The Consumer Expenditure Diary methodology uses 

PAPI – one week’s worth of expenditure entries (x2) 

 Census Field Representatives “place” the diary inperson and have up to two more visits 

 The CED gathers more detail than the Consumer 

Expenditure Quarterly Interview 

 The Diary is divided into four sections: 

 Food Away From Home 

 Food for Home Consumption 

 Clothing, Shoes, Jewelry and Accessories 

 All Other Products, Services and Expenses 

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Web Diary Overview 

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Motivation

To encourage contemporaneous reporting, 

improve accuracy through access across locations 

and household members, provide a platform for 

individual diaries, allow for a multiportal

approach, and to improve response rates by 

offering alternative response modes to the 

traditional paper diary.

Objective

To understand the operational issues regarding 

implementing a web mode for CE and to 

understand the data quality and response rates 

associated with web collection.
Web Diary Logistics

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 Data Collection Period – Jan, Feb, Mar 2013

 Separate online WD application

 All research cases are “double placed”

 FRs provide username and password to 

Respondent via CAPI instrument

 New outcome codes for Web Diary (final 

disposition)

 New materials

FR Talking Points (FR)

User Guide (FR)

 Test Limitations

English only

No Multi-CU HHs or Replacement HHs
Web Diary Eligible Cases & 

Production Sample

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 Eligible Web Diary Cases

 English only

 No Multi-CU HHs or Replacement HHs

 Home internet access via PC or tablet

 Full Production Sample

 All CE Diary cases fielded between January and 

March 2013 

 Restricted Production Sample

 Excluded non-English language interviews

 Excluded Spawned HHs and Replacement HHs 

 Excluded HHs reporting no internet access or 

internet access only through a mobile phone
II. RESULTS – SAMPLE 

PERFORMANCE & 

DEMOGRAPHICS

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Sample Demographics & 

Characteristics

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Web Diary Sample

(N = 456)

Restricted Production

(N = 2,261)

Full Production

(N = 3,251)

Average Age 50.1 49.6 50.1 

Average CU Size 2.6 2.5 2.4 

Race (percent)

White & Other Race 87.1 86.5 85.1 

Black 6.8 9.2 10.9 

Asian 6.1 4.2 4.0 

Ethnicity

Hispanic 12.7% 9.8% 14.6% 

 Pre-tax Income Difference

 Web Diary Sample–Restricted Production = $5,000
Sample Demographics & 

Characteristics

Web Diary Sample

(N = 456)

Restricted Production

(N = 2,261)

Full Production

(N = 3,251)

Gender

Male

48.5% 51.0% 49.6% 

Female

51.5% 49.0% 50.4% 

Education

Elementary

0.9% 1.4% 3.6% 

High school

21.1% 26.7% 33.2% 

College

78.1% 71.8% 62.8% 

Never attended

- 0.1% 0.4% 

Tenure

Homeowner

73.0% 72.3% 64.4% 

Renter

27.0% 27.7% 35.6% 

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Overall Response Rates

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Overall Response Rates

Web Diary Sample Restricted Production Full Production

RO Total 

Eligible 

Diaries Rate Total 

Eligible 

Diaries Rate Total 

Eligible 

Diaries Rate

New York 178 54 30.3% 536 301 56.2% 708 435 61.4%

Philadelphia 239 100 41.8% 722 410 56.8% 1,008 609 60.4%

Chicago 273 86 31.5% 560 373 66.6% 761 550 72.3%

Atlanta 286 80 28.0% 604 423 70.0% 845 598 70.8%

Denver 156 55 35.3% 584 329 56.3% 809 503 62.2%

Los Angeles 294 81 27.6% 710 425 59.9% 910 556 61.1%

Overall 1,426 456 32.0% 3,716 2,261 60.8% 5,041 3,251 64.5%

 Response Rates

 Web Diary Sample – 32.0%

 Restricted Production – 60.8%

 Full Production – 64.5%
III. RESULTS – EXPENDITURE 

COMPARISONS

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Diary Completion

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 Analysis excluded non-respondents and removed diaries 

that FRs indicated had no entries upon pick-up

 Partial Recall – Diaries in which respondent provided 

entries are augmented by entries collected through the 

receipt/recall process

Diary Completion

Web Diary

CUs

Restricted 

Production 

CUs

Web Diary

Percent

Restricted 

Production Percent

Difference 

(Test-RP) Change

Week 1 entries only 38 52 19.0% 5.5% 13.5 245.5%

Week 2 entries only 7 95 3.5% 10.0% -6.5 -65.0%

Entries both weeks 155 801 77.5% 84.5% -7.0 -8.3%

Total 200 948 100.0% 100.0%
Number of Diary Entries

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 Total Entries among CUs entering 2 weeks of data without 

total recall

 Total Entries among CUs entering 2 weeks of data without 

total recall, compared against double placed restricted 

production CUs

Total Entries

Web Diary Sample

(n=155)

Restricted Production 

(n=801)

Difference 

(Test-RP) Change

Mean entries 66.9 75.6 -8.7 -11.5%

Median entries 61.0 69.0 -8.0 -11.6%

Total Entries compared against double-placed RP CUs

Web Diary Sample

(n=155)

Double-Placed Restricted 

Production (n=281)

Difference (TestRP) Change

Mean entries 66.9 79.4 -12.5 -15.7%

Median entries 61.0 74.0 -13.0 -17.6%
Amount of Expenditures 

Reported

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 Total Expenditures among CUs entering 2 weeks of data 

without total recall

 Total Expenditures among CUs entering 2 weeks of data 

without total recall, compared against double placed 

restricted production CUs

Total Expenditure Amounts

Difference 

(Test-RP) Change

Mean difference -$301.82 -15.1%

Median difference -$228.16 -17.0%

Expenditure Amounts compared 

against double-placed RP CUs

Difference 

(Test-RP) Change

Mean difference -$138.26 -7.6%

Median difference -$196.17 -15.0%
Number of Entries per Week

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 Cases were subset to include CUs not having any entries 

from partial recall

Entries by CUs completing both weeks (no recall)

Web Diary 

Sample (n=126)

Restricted 

Production (n=244)

Difference (TestRP) Change

Week 1 mean entries 37.8 41.7 -3.9 -9.4%

Week 1 median entries 35.0 37.0 -2.0 -5.4%

Week 2 mean entries 31.7 38.3 -6.6 -17.2%

Week 2 median entries 29.0 32.5 -3.5 -10.8%

Overall mean entries 69.5 80.0 -10.5 -13.1%

Overall median entries 62.0 75.5 -13.5 -17.9%

Within-CU proportion of entries entered in first week by 

CUs completing both weeks (no recall)

Web Diary 

Sample (n=126) Restricted Production (n=244)

Proportion (Week 1) 54.8% 53.1%
Amount of Expenditures per 

Week

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 Cases were subset to include CUs not having any entries 

from partial recall

Expenditure Totals for CUs completing both weeks (no 

recall)

Difference (Test-RP) Change

Week 1 mean difference -$3.73 -0.4%

Week 1 median difference -$74.85 -12.8%

Week 2 mean difference -$244.32 -25.1%

Week 2 median difference -$93.84 -15.9%

Overall mean difference -$248.05 -13.2%

Overall median difference -$210.31 -15.5%

Within-CU proportion of expenditure amounts entered in first 

week of CUs completing both weeks (no recall)

Web Diary Sample

(n=126) Restricted Production (n=244)

Proportion (Week 1) 52.4% 52.1%
Association of Respondent Login Patterns

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 Expenditures

 CUs that logged-in within the first three days and completed 

both diary weeks had larger median expenditure amounts 

($146 higher) than those that did not.

 CUs that logged-in within the first three days and completed 

both diary weeks had comparable median expenditure totals 

to those in the RP subsample.

 Entries

 CUs completing two weeks of data entry and logging-in 

early in the reporting period had a greater average number 

of entries (77) compared to those that did not (65). 

 CUs logging-in within the first three days of the reporting 

period had similar average number of entries (77) as those 

in the paper diary RP sample (76).
Association of FR Follow-up 

Contacts 

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 Expenditures

 CUs receiving a FR reminder contact had a slightly higher 

median weekly amount of reported expenditures ($50 

higher).

 Entries

 CUs receiving a FR reminder contact had a slightly greater 

median number of entries than those that did not (33 and 29 

respectively). 
Daily Expenditures between Test 

and RP Diaries

 Although, RP CUs have a higher number of entries on average 

than test CUs, a greater percentage of RP CUs had days with no 

expenditures 

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0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Percent of CUs with no entries

Day of Expenditure

Change in Percent of CUs with No Daily 

Expenditures (among 2-week diary completers)

Test CUs (n=126) "DP RP" Production CUs (n=244)
IV. FINDINGS & 

RECOMMENDATIONS

FULL REPORT: HTTP://WWW.BLS.GOV/CEX/CE_STATPAPERS.HTM

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Findings

 Higher median expenditures for the following 

sections:

 Clothing, Shoes, Jewelry, and Accessories

 Food and Drinks for Home Consumption 

 Lower item nonresponse, as defined for a diary 

instrument

 Week-to-week drop-off validates shift to one week 

collection period

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Recommendations

 Low Response Rates

 Create flexible, but secure, username and password 

requirements

 Restrict default usernames and passwords to specific 

characters

 Print User Guide on non-glossy paper to facilitate 

username/password transcription

 Change the test protocol to allow for FR collection and input 

of records, particularly receipts with numerous items

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Recommendations

 Higher Rate of Total Recall

 Allow entry, into the instrument, of in-scope expenditures 

after the final day of collection

 Assess different protocols for allowing the FR access to a 

summary of the respondent’s web diary entries

 Set Date field to default to current day 

 Run daily analysis on the paradata to determine which 

respondents have not logged into the instrument as well as 

keeping a log of how many days have passed since the last 

successful logon by the respondent and, after a specific time 

period has lapsed, FRs will be notified to contact the 

respondent to remind them to enter any expenditures

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Recommendations

 Low Placement Rates

 Create classroom training for any feasibility test that 

features enormous departures from past protocols 

 Implement the most recent security protocols, displaying 

security assurances in a prominent place within the 

instrument, and educate FRs on the most relevant data 

security concerns

 Higher Ineligible Rates

 Include multiple survey modes in order to determine which 

modal offering is optimal and the most effective

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Recommendations

 Other

 Paradata should be formatted in a manner that is easily 

analyzed and readable

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Acronym Definitions

 WD – Web Diary

 FR – Field Representative

 R – Respondent

 CU – Consumer Unit

 HH - Household

 CAPI – Computer-assisted Personal Interviewing

 PAPI – Paper-and-Pencil Interviewing

 CED – Consumer Expenditure Diary

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Contact Information

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Ian J. Elkin

elkin.ian@bls.gov