The CE Program: The CE Program:

Dedicated to Improvement

Ja T R an Jay T. Ryan

June 21, 2010 June 21, 2010

Welco

&

Thank Thank 

Outline

 Reason for this forum Reason for this forum The CE Program Recent survey improvements Rationale for survey redesign Rationale for survey redesign Gemini project

3

Reason for tReason for t

This forum is the first mileThis forum is the first mile

redesign project (Gemin
Reason for this forum Reason for this forum

Gather information that will inform the redesign Gather information that will inform the redesign

For what purpose do you use the data?What specific data do o se? What specific data do you use?What problems or limitations have you 

identified with using the data? identified with using the data?

What changes would you like to see in the 

data?

CE ProgCE Prog

 Budget: FY10 $43 mi

Budget: FY10 $43 mi

 Staffing: 60 positions 

EconomistsIT SpecialistsStatisticiansSurvey MethodologistCognitive Psychologis

 Census Bureau Census Bureau

Mission

The mission of the Consumer Expenditure Survey The mission of the Consumer Expenditure Survey

program (CE) is to collect, produce, and disseminate information that presents a statistical picture of 

consumer spendfh ingor the Consumer Price Index, 

government agencies, and private data users. The mission encomp yg p asses analyzing CE data to produce 

socio-economic studies of consumer spending, and providing CE data users with assistance, education, and tools for working with the data CE supports the tools for working with the data. CE supports the

mission of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and therefore CE data must be of consistently high statistical quality, 

rel il d evant, timely, and must protect respondent 

confidentiality. 7

Visio

From straightforw

Through efficien

To continuous di

Th CE P ill The CE Program will p

Valuable, accurate, 

Inf i 

formation on cons
I t i & Di I Interview & Diary Improvements

Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) Interview (2003) Di d hi d i (2004) Diary demographics and income (2004)Other data collection improvements Contact History Instrument (2005, 2006) Field training User friendly diary form and auto-coding 

system (2005)

I t i & Di Interview & Diary 

 Bi i l I t i 

Biennial Interview que

 Timely and relevant In

questionnaire revision

Medicare prescription Tax stimulus: amount 

2009)

I t i & Di I Interview & Diary Improvements

Statistical methods improvements Statistical methods improvements Income imputation (2004) S l ti f Di I t i d t f b t Selection of Diary or Interview data for best

publication estimates (2007, 2009)

Data Dissemination CE Microdata Users CE Microdata Users’ Workshop (since 2006) Workshop (since 2006) CE Anthologies (2003, 2005, 2008) More timely release (October 2009) More timely release (October 2009)

R ti l f S Rationale for Sur

Despite all these improvemDespite all these improvem Basic design has been th B d ur ensome surveys Data quality issues  Declining response rates
R i l f S Rd i Rationale for Survey Redesign

 Challenges in the social consumer and data Challenges in the social, consumer, and data

collection environments, such as

lack of time or willingnesscompeting surveyslanguage barriersgat d iti ted communities

confidentiality concerns

automatic bill paying automatic bill payinglarge general merchandise stores

Gemini: SurveGemini: Surve

Th ll i i f tThe overall mission of t

to redesign the CE surv

d t lit th h data quality through a 

in measurement error, 

f d ocus on under-reportinhttp://www.geminiproj

Gemini: Survey Redesign Gemini: Survey Redesign

2009 Establish project and teams B d t i iti ti Budget initiative Executive management group Expert Panel of advisors Research Project Tracking

System report

 Data Quality definition report

Gemini: SurveGemini: Surve

2010 Survey Redesign Panel D Dt C t T h l 

Data Capture Technolog

 AAPOR Panel on Respon Data User Needs Forum  Methods Workshop & re Field research (Order eff

Measurement Issues)

 Disseminate research re
Gemini: Survey Redesign Gemini: Survey Redesign

2011 Household Survey Data Producer Workshop R d i O ti f CE W k h Redesign Options for CE Workshop CNSTAT consensus panel Continue with field research (Web diary, 

Individual diary, Records Study)

 Di i t h lt Disseminate research results

Gemini: SurveGemini: Surve

2012 CNSTAT report D l hi h l l l 

Develop high level plan 

implementation of a new 

 Contin e ith field esea 

Continue with field resea

interviewing, Bounding s

 Disseminate research re

Disseminate research re

Gemini: Survey Redesign Gemini: Survey Redesign

2013 and later 2013 and later Continue with field research Di i t h lt Disseminate research results Propose redesign model Meet with users Select redesign model Development projects Implementation

Contact Info

Jay T. R

Division C

Consumer Expend

www.bls.go

202-691-5

ryan.jay@b