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

Improving diary keeping of daily 

expenditures with online diaries

Laura Erhard and Brett McBride

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

European Survey Research Association Conference

Lisbon, Portugal

August 1, 2017
2 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Outline

 Overview: Consumer Expenditure (CE) Survey

 Brief Background: CE Redesign

 Proof of Concept Test Design and Diary Protocols

 Results

 Lessons Learned

 Current Research and Future Plans for Diaries
3 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Consumer Expenditure Survey

 Collects Spending Data on the U.S. 

Population

 Sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Labor 

Statistics, collected by the Census Bureau

 Survey participants report dollar amounts 

for all non-investment purchases. 

Business expenses and reimbursements 

are excluded.

 Provide expenditure weights for the U.S. 

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

 Recall Interview and Diary Survey
4 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

What is the CE Redesign?

“...aims to redesign the Consumer Expenditure (CE) survey to 

improve data quality through a verifiable reduction in 

measurement error—particularly error caused by underreporting.”
5 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

CE is the CE Redesign?

“...aims to redesign the Consumer Expenditure (CE) survey to 

improve data quality through a verifiable reduction in 

measurement error—particularly error caused by underreporting.”
6 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

CE Redesign Plan

Post Wave

Non-monetary Incentive:

Spending Summary Report

Respondent 

engagement 

mailings

Diary Week

& Records Collection

Advance Mailing

Wave 1

Visit 1: Recall Interview

Visit 2: Records Interview

Wave 2

12 months 

between waves

Advance Mailing

Visit 1: Recall Interview

Diary Week

& Records Collection

Visit 2: Records Interview

Diary Week
7 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Current vs. Proposed: Diary

Main goals of online diary

 Add flexibility and ease for respondents

 Allow for in the moment reporting

 Allow for midweek monitoring

7

Current CE Diary Proposed CE Diary

Household open-ended paper diary Online, personal diaries with paper backups
8 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Proof of Concept

Test Design
9 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Proof-of-Concept (POC) Test

 Fielded July 2015 – Sep 2015

 Ensure that the basic underlying structure 

and components of the new design are 

feasible

 Designed to mirror the proposed design to 

the fullest extent possible – one wave of 

design plan, including 1-week online diary

 Final response rate: 50%
11 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Proof of Concept Test Diary
12 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Online Diary Eligibility (N=1,008)

73.9%

6.1%

20.0%

Home Internet Access - Frequent Use Home Internet Access - Infrequent Use No Home Internet Access

Eligible for online diary
13 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Mode Choice for Online Eligibles (N= 747)

46.3%

52.3%

1.3%

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Online Paper Refused

Online Eligible Diarists 
14 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Interviewer 

Observations on 

Paper Choice

“...they felt expenses 

would be captured 

more accurately & 

completely w/hands 

on booklet.”

“...thought it would 

be too much”

“Mrs. was not 

present. She uses 

internet but he asked 

paper diary for her 

since he will not able 

to explain recording 

on line.”

“She was web savvy 

but preferred paper 

as didn't want to do 

anymore log ins”

“Respondents have 

a prepaid data plan 

on IPhone -

preferred not to use 

it for CED”
15 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Mode Choice by Education Level

38.1%

43.9%

48.9%

20.6%

60.5%

54.3%

50.0%

37.4%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

Up to HS graduate Some college and

Associate

Bachelors Masters and beyond

Percent of education group

Online Paper
16 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Mode Choice by Age Group

48.6%

54.6%

40.9%

23.0%

50.0%

44.4%

53.4%

76.0%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

Age 15-19 Age 20-39 Age 40-64 Age 65 and older

Percent of age group

Online Paper
17 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Diary Completion Rates

81.0%

13.0%

0.3%

6.0%

89.0%

7.0%

2.6% 1.0%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

 Filled Non-Participation No Expenses Total Recall Diaries

Percent of diaries 

Online (N=345) Paper (N=646)
18 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Average Number of Entries by Mode

2.4

11.0

5.0

6.4

3.0

16.1

5.4

7.6

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

18.0

Clothing Meals Away From

Home

Food At Home Other

Average Number of Entries Reported

Online Paper

Note: does no control for demographics.
19 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Average Amounts by Mode

$108 $61 $100 

$828 

$73 $50 $83 

$418 

 $-

 $100

 $200

 $300

 $400

 $500

 $600

 $700

 $800

 $900

Clothing Meals Away From

Home

Average Amount of entries reported

Food At Home Other

Online Paper

Note: does no control for demographics.
20 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

5.6%

3.7%

5.7%

0.0%

0.0%

9.7%

15.3%

17.7%

6.8%

9.7%

5.2%

9.2%

0.0% 2.0% 4.0% 6.0% 8.0% 10.0% 12.0% 14.0% 16.0% 18.0% 20.0%

 Age

Gender

 Package type

 Alcohol cost*

 Alcohol type

 Meal type

Paper Online

Diary Quality – Item Missingness

Meals Away 

from home

Food At Home 

Clothing

*Alcohol Cost: excludes entries of '0' from non-response
21 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Online Diaries – Login Failures

N Mean Median Min Max

Online diarists w/1+ failure 154 3.3 2.0 1 21

All online diarists 326 1.6 0.0 0 21

16% never successfully logged in!!
22 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

In the Moment Reporting

 Data showed average online POC diarist had 38% of logins between 

midnight and 3pm (N=302)

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

midnight-3am 6am-9am noon-3pm 6pm-9pm

Proportion of All Logins
23 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Online Diaries to Record Sensitive Items

 POC records alcohol as a separate expense in the Meals Away 

from Home section

N (CUs)

% CUs 

reporting 

alcohol

Min. 

alcohol 

entries

Max. 

alcohol 

entries

Online 190 27.4% 0 10

Paper 318 19.2% 0 6
24 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Lessons Learned

 Younger, more educated respondents more frequently chose 

online diaries, but overall respondents chose paper

 Ease of logins is important to online diary effectiveness

 Online diaries can improve data quality (in terms of missingess)

 Online diaries can capture data throughout the day (presumably 

better than paper)

 Online diaries can improve sensitive data collection...maybe
25 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Ongoing/Planned Research

 2016: Updated the desktop interface to take advantage of 

screen size.

 2017: Built a new online diary using open-source code that can 

take advantage of “future enhancements” (photo capture, 

scanning, etc)

 2017-21: (Pending) Large Scale Feasibility Test, incorporating 

new diary.
26 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Future Enhancements

 Receipt scanning with Optical Character Recognition

 Photo reminders

 Geo-tagging

 Reminders based on location
27 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Online Diaries Improvement Project Diaries - Home 

Screen
28 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Online Diaries Improvement Project Diaries – Entry 

Screen
Contact Information

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

Laura Erhard

Branch Chief, BRPD

Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys

www.bls.gov/cex

202-691-5115

Erhard.Laura@bls.gov