Improving Proxy Reporting 

or How to improve reporting by up to 20% in 2 minutes!

Jennifer Edgar

Edgar.Jennifer@bls.gov

Abstract

The Consumer Expenditure Quarterly Interview 

Survey (CEQ) asks one respondent to report 

expenditures made by an entire household. 

The CEQ has long identified this type of proxy 

reporting as a potentially significant source of 

underreporting. There are two likely reasons 

for these omissions: knowledge and recall. 

Lack of knowledge, stemming from the fact 

that participants may not know about all 

purchases by other household members, 

cannot be corrected through revisions to 

survey questions. The second reason, that 

participants may forget to consider other 

household members and report only for 

themselves, may be able to be addressed 

through the survey design. This opportunity 

was the focus of this study.

A small lab study (n=18) explored the 

feasibility and effectiveness of collecting 

information about each household member at 

the beginning of the study, and using that 

information to add prompts in relevant sections 

of the survey. The study found this approach 

to be effective. All participants were able to 

provide information specific to other household 

members upfront, and after hearing the 

prompts reported an average of $182 of 

additional expenditure reports; a 6 percent 

increase in overall reporting. 

Proxy Questions

Questions asked before main interview to 

identify expenditure categories relevant to 

other household members:

1. Are there some types of things that 

[name1] spends money on that you 

don’t? 

2. Do other people in your household have 

any hobbies or activities they like to do?

3. Have other people in your household 

taken any vacations or trips without you 

last year?

4. Has anyone in your household bought 

anything unusual or out of the ordinary 

in the past three months?

Proxy Probes 

Unscripted probes asked during relevant 

sections:

“You mentioned your wife bought some 

school books, has she done that in the 

past three months?”

“You said that your sister loves to go to 

concerts, has she bought any concert 

tickets in the past three months?”

Study Goals

•Test feasibility of improving proxy reporting 

through use of personalized probes 

•Evaluate impact of semi-scripted proxy 

probes on expenditure reporting

•Evaluate impact of probes on interview 

length 

Method

•18 participants distributed between gender, 

income and education

•All participant had more than 2 household 

members (three to nine, average 4.2)

•Asked questions upfront about spending 

habits, hobbies, vacations and unusual 

purchases of other household members

•Asked proxy probes in relevant expenditure 

section based on information collected
Improving Proxy Reporting 

or How to improve reporting by up to 20% in 2 minutes!

Jennifer Edgar

Household Composition (* = participant)

•Husband* and wife

•Husband, wife* and minor children

•Husband, wife and adult children*

•Single parent* and minor children

•Financially dependent roommates*

•Uncle* and minor and adult nieces

•Sisters* and their aunt

Inclusion of Other Household Members

Percent of other household members 

identified by the proxy questions

Proxy 

Question Min. Mean Max.

Types of things 25% 63% 100%

Hobbies 25% 37% 100%

Trips 0% 35% 100%

Expenditure Categories

Wide range of expenditure categories 

captured by proxy questions

•Entertainment (15) • Clothing (12)

•Sports (11) • Groceries (9)

•Household bills (8) • Cosmetics (6)

•Electronics and video games (8)

•Vehicle Expenses (6)

Unusual Expenses

Usual proxy question was Intentionally vague 

question resulted in range of responses.

Important information, as expenses tended to 

be: - Expensive (e.g., new TV)

- Habitual (e.g. textbooks)

Timing

Minutes spent on proxy questions. Proxy 

probe timing was not captured.

Min. Max. Mean Median

1:05 4:20 2:13 2:15

Expenditure Reporting

After answering the expenditure questions 

once, the proxy probes were asked. 

Ten of 18 participants added at least one 

expenditure after the proxy probe.

Impact of Proxy Probes Min. 

Mean cost of each report added $182

Median cost of each report added $63

Maximum cost added $1,000 

Average percent of total expenditure 

amount added

6.0%

Maximum percent of total 

expenditure amount added

20.0%

Conclusions

•Using personalized probes is feasible and 

may improve proxy reporting

•A variety of types of expenditures that 

might have otherwise been missed

•On average, reporting improved 6% with 

just 2 additional interviewing minutes