Text table 9. Comparison of money Income before taxes:
(CPS), 1990-93

Consumer Expenditure (CE) Survey and Current Population Survey

CE survey aggregate money
income before taxes’ Ratio of CE to CPS
Income category (in billions)
1990 1991 1992 | 1993 19980 1991 1992 1993
Money income before taxes’ $3077 | $3300 | $3364 | $3378 0.87 0.90 0.89 87
Wage and salary income 2344 2502 2507 2651 90 93 89 88
Self-employment income. 225 250 249 212 8 aul 1.10 89
Social Security and retirement incom 332 351 389 264 7 37 1.02 1.02
Property income... 103 14 3 103 39 AB 49 45
Unemployment, workers compensation,
and veterans benefits .. 21 24 w 31 59 52 68 59
Public assistance and Supplemental
Security income ... 23 26 32 32 79 80 96 82
Regular contributions and other income 30 33 a KI 63 68 73 61

‘CE data are for complete reporters of income.
2 Excludes the value of food stamps, meals as pay and rent as pay.

NOTE: Ratios are based on unrounded data.
SOURCE: CPS data on which ratios are based are from U.S. Department

struct comparable estimates for 1992 and 1993 are not avail-
able. Therefore, the comparisons in this report are for health
care expenditures exclusive of consumers’ health insur-
ance premiums.

Text table 8 shows Consumer Expenditure estimates and
CE-to-NHA ratios that compare estimates of out-of-pocket
health care expenditures, less health insurance and nurs-
ing home care. As reported in the Consumer Expenditure
Survey, aggregate health care expenditures were $90 bil-
lion in 1993, or 71 percent of the $135 billion estimated in
the NHA. Of the CE total, $40 billion were spent on medi-
cal commodities and $55 billion on medical services. These
amounts were 73 percent and 69 percent of the NHA esti-
mates, respectively. The data show moderate variations in
the CE-NHA relationship over the period for both medical
commodities and medical services. Occasional dips in the
ratios may reflect underlying underreporting or undetect-
able administrative error.

Current Population Survey. The Bureau of the Census col-
lects income data in the March supplement to the Current
Population Survey (CPS). There are several differences be-
tween the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the CPS. The
CPS collects income data in March for the previous calen-
dar year. By comparison, the Consumer Expenditure Sur-
vey estimates of income (from the Interview survey) are
obtained in the second and fifth interviews of the consumer
unit. These estimates refer to the prior 12 months and, due
to the rotating panel design of the Interview survey, the
interviews may occur anytime during the year. CPS income
data are topcoded at the time of data collection, and as a
result, some of the CPS income data at the upper and lower
boundaries of the income distribution are limited to speci-

of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Money /ncome of Households, Families,
and Persons in the United States (Annual), Series P-60, Numbers 174, 180,
184. Due to changes in the topcoding limits initiated in the March 1994 CPS.
income supplement, the CPS income estimates for 1993 are from unpublished
tabulations derived using topcoding limits comparable with previous years.

fied amounts. By comparison, all of the CE income data
are reports of specific amounts. .

Census imputes CPS income data that are missing (due
to nonresponse to income questions) based on demographic
characteristics. In contrast, Consumer Expenditure Survey
estimates are for complete income reporters only; income
data are not imputed as part of the estimation procedure.
Neither procedure accounts for underreporting, which is
especially prevalent for property income.

In the March 1994 supplement to the CPS survey, the
Census Bureau collected income data by computer assisted
personal interview (CAPI). As a result, the 1993 CPS esti-
mates are not strictly comparable with earlier CPS data.
When compared to the Consumer Expenditure Survey,
which is collected by traditional paper and pencil inter-
view, the 1993 estimates reflect a basic difference in collec-
tion method.

Text table 9 shows that the Consumer Expenditure sur-
vey estimates of total income before taxes are about 87 to
90 percent of the CPS estimates. This reflects similar ratios
for the largest sources of income: Wages and salaries, self-
employment income, and Social Security income. Some of
the differences between the Consumer Expenditure Survey
and CPS estimates are expected because the CPS is designed
specifically to collect income data, while the focus of the
Consumer Expenditure Survey is primarily on expenditures.
In addition, the CPS population is about 3 percent larger
than the CE population. The low ratios for property income
reflect imputations for missing data in the CPS and
underreporting in CE. Some of the variation in the ra-
tios reflects the general difficulty of obtaining income in-
formation via household survey, which is experienced by
both the Consumer Fxpenditure Survey and CPS.

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