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

Overview of the Consumer 

Expenditure Surveys

Adam Safir, Division Chief

Consumer Expenditure Surveys Program

CE Microdata Users’ Workshop

July 19, 2017
2 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

Mission

 The mission of the CE is to collect, process, and disseminate 

information that presents a statistical picture of consumer 

spending for the Consumer Price Index, government agencies, 

and private data users. 

 The mission encompasses analyzing CE data to produce socioeconomic studies of consumer spending, and providing CE data 

users with assistance, education, and tools for working with 

the data.

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Terminology

 Why a consumer expenditure survey, and not a consumption 

survey?

 Consumer Expenditures: 

 “Expenditures are the acquisition costs, as measured by the actual 

financial obligation at the time of acquisition, in dollar terms, for any 

payment method, for goods and services acquired by the consumer unit 

from outside the consumer unit, which are intended to increase the wellbeing of the consumer unit.”
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Terminology

 Consumer Unit (CU): 

 all members of a particular household who are related by blood, marriage, 

adoption, or other legal arrangements

 a person living alone or sharing a household with others or living as a 

roomer in a private home or lodging house or in permanent living quarters 

in a hotel or motel, but who is financially independent 

 or two or more persons living together who use their income to make joint 

expenditure decisions

 approximately equivalent to households; 99 percent of HHs have 1 CU

 Reference Person: 

 The first person listed by the respondent when asked who owns or rents 

the home

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History

 1888: First BLS expenditure survey

 1972: Census Bureau begins survey collection for BLS. First use of 

weekly Diary and 3-month recall Interview instruments

 1979: Continuous data collection starts

 2003: Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) begins

 2004: Imputation for missing income variables is implemented

 2013: Model-based estimation of income taxes is introduced

 2015: Elimination of the first (bounding) interview in Interview

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Survey Design, Data Collection, & Research
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Survey Design

 National probability sample of households designed to represent 

the total U.S. civilian non-institutional population 

 Includes: persons living in houses, condominiums, apartments, and 

group quarters such as college dormitories

 Excludes: military personnel living on base and nursing home residents, 

as well as people in prisons or other institutions

 Data are collected by the Census Bureau on behalf of BLS via two 

independent surveys

 Quarterly Interview Survey

 Diary Survey

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Quarterly Interview Survey

 Designed primarily to collect expenditures for large or less frequently 

purchased items that can be recalled in a quarterly interview, or things 

that you make regular monthly payments on

 Approximately 48,000 addresses are visited each year

 CUs are identified within housing units associated with those addresses

 Rotating panel design, each CU is interviewed for 4 consecutive 

quarters

 Approximately 7,000 CUs per quarter result in 28,000 interviews per 

year
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Quarterly Interview Survey

 Instrument was paper-based until 2003, then converted to Computer 

Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI)

 Bounding interview eliminated in 2015

 Mode is primarily personal visit, but some decentralized telephone 

collection occurs

 Interview length is 65 minutes average
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Diary Survey

 Designed primarily to collect detailed data on small, frequently purchased 

items which would be difficult to recall in a quarterly interview

 4 sections:

 Food for home consumption

 Meals, snacks, and drinks away from home

 Clothing, shoes, jewelry, accessories

 All other items
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Diary Survey

 Annual diary cases are divided equally amongst the days of the year and 

then assigned to the collection period month

 Each CU is assigned two consecutive 7-day diaries with two personal visits 

 Starting in 2017, Field Representatives (FRs) have up to a month to place 

the diaries

 Approximately 7,000 CUs result in 14,000 completed diaries

 At BLS, each Diary week is treated separately for estimation purposes
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Research

 Propose and evaluate regular survey questionnaire changes

 Develop and evaluate new methods:

 Use of incentives for increased response and engagement

 Linking to administrative data for validation

 Effect of record use on data quality

 Provide comprehensive information on data quality

 Data quality profile

 R-indicators for representivity assessments

 Response rates and potential nonresponse bias 
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Response Rates

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Dissemination & Outreach
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CE Customers

 Government

 Consumer Price Index (CPI)

 Census Bureau (BOC)

 Defense Department (DoD)

 Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

 Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

 Health and Human Services (HHS)

 Department of Agriculture (USDA)

 Media

 Market & Academic Research

 YOU!

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CPI Cost Weights

Car

 Insurance

2.04%

Fast Food

2.40%

Other 

Lodging

 2.58%

Electricity 

2.70%

Full-service

Restaurants 

2.99%

Gasoline 4.44%

New Cars 

4.93%

Rent 

5.63%

Owner's 

Equivalent Rent

 23.72%

Relative importance of components in the CPI 
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Media
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Media
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Publications

 Monthly Labor Review

 Beyond the Numbers

 Spotlight on Statistics

 Data Comparisons

 Department of Labor (DOL) blog posts

 CE Anthology 
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Recent Articles

Beyond the Numbers

 Insight into mortgage 

instruments before and after 

the housing collapse

 Household healthcare 

spending

 Comparisons of United States 

consumer expenditures 

compare with the United 

Kingdom and Japan

DOL Blog Posts

 Spending habits of older 

consumers

 Millennial Spending

 Bacon and ice cream
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Data Dissemination

 New Releases & Reports

 Public Use Microdata (PUMD) files

 Tables

 Annual calendar year tables

 Midyear tables

 Multiyear tables

 Cross-tabulated tables

 Metropolitan statistical area tables

 Region tables and area tables

 High-income tables

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Outreach

 Survey Methods Symposium & 

Microdata Users’ Workshop

 Conference Presentations

 Midwest Economic Association (MEA)

 American Council on Consumer Interests 

(ACCI)

 Southern Economic Conference (SEA)

 American Association for Public Opinion 

Research (AAPOR)

 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM)
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Modernization & Innovation
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Online Diary (prototype)
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Gemini 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
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Spending Summary Report (prototype)
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Experimental State Weights 

Simulated Design of 2010 CE PSUs
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Online Interactive Tools
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Consumer Expenditure Surveys Program

www.bls.gov/cex

202-691-6900

CEXINFO@bls.gov