Consumer Expenditure Survey

CNSTAT Panel Briefing

Survey Design & Data Collection

Adam Safir

Division of Consumer Expenditure Survey, BLS

February 8, 2011
 Survey Design

 Interview Survey

 Diary Survey

 Data Collection

 Role of the Census Bureau

 Interviewing

 Response Rates

Outline
 Designed to collect expenditures for large or 

less frequently purchased items that can be 

recalled in a quarterly interview, or things that 

Rs make regular monthly payments on

 Housing units are selected for sample; 

Consumer units are identified within housing 

units

 Each unit is interviewed 5 times

 Rotating panel design to smooth workflow

Interview Survey
 Instrument:

 Paper and pencil survey until 2003

 Converted to Computer Assisted Personal Interview 

(CAPI) in 2003

 Mode: 

 Primarily personal visit, but some decentralized 

telephone collection (~33%)

 Interview Length: 

 60-minute average 

Interview Survey, cntd.
 Establish reference person and HH roster

 Identify consumer units (CUs):

 Anyone related to reference person by blood, 

marriage, unmarried partner, other legal 

arrangement

 Other individuals or groups of related individuals 

may form additional CUs

 Others who share spending on housing, food and 

other expenses

Interview 1
 Composition may change over time

 Can move in or out of housing unit

 Students living away-from-home, in student 

housing, are separate Cus

Interview 1: Consumer Units
 Demographic information for each CU member

 Housing characteristics:

 e.g., type of structure, number of rooms, fuels 

used, year built, etc.

 Inventory of appliances and equipment:

 e.g., stove, refrigerator, washer, dryer, computer, 

etc.

 Expenditures:

 One month recall for all expenditure categories

 Used for bounding purposes

Interview 1: Data Collected
 Detailed information on:

 Owned Properties - description, current value, 

existing mortgages, home equity loans, payments

 Vehicles – year, make, model, financing info for 

owned/leased 

 Health insurance – insurer, type, who pays

 Non-health insurance – type (e.g., life, property, 

auto), pymt schedule

 Data are carried forward to Interview 2-5, and 

updated for disposals and new purchases

Interview 1: Data Collected, contd.
 Updates to inventoried items:

 Properties, vehicles, insurance, etc.

 Expenditures, descriptions, and other 

information for the previous 3 months for most 

expenditure categories

Interviews 2-5
Interviews 2-5: Expenditure Categories

Categories

Rent Household services

Utilities Educational expenses

Home maintenance & repairs Child care

Major appliances Trips and vacations

Minor appliances Transportation

Clothing Entertainment

Household furnishings Cash contributions

Medical expenses
 Usual weekly expenses for groceries

 Usual monthly expense for:

 alcoholic beverages

 mass transit to go to work, school, and other places

Interviews 2-5: Expense Patterns for 

Other Items (detail collected in diary)
 Work experience and income for each CU 

member 14+

 Income for the CU as a whole

 Credit liability 

 Interview 5

 Change in assets

Interviews 2 & 5
 Designed to collect detailed data on small 

frequently purchased items which may be 

difficult to recall in a quarterly interview

 Daily diary, with 4 parts:

 Food for home consumption, Food away from 

home, Apparel, Other

Diary Survey
 Each week of the year has equal 

representation

 Diaries must be placed within 7 days of 

“earliest placement date”

 Each Diary week is treated separately for 

estimation purposes

Diary Survey, cntd.
 Each CU completes two consecutive 7-day 

Diaries with three personal visits

 1

st visit

− Collect demographic information place week 1 Diary

 2

nd visit

− Diary check and recall place Diary 2

 3

rd visit

− Diary check and recall collect income information

Diary Survey, contd.
 Develops sample of housing units

 Drawn from the decennial census of addresses

 Programs CAPI instruments

 Including edits, according to BLS specifications

 Collects data

 Under Title 13

Role of the Census Bureau
 Interview

 CAPI data transmitted to Census HQ, where they 

copy data needed for next quarter’s instrument 

(properties, vehicles, etc.) 

 Diary

 Check-in, keying, coding, imaging operations in 

Jeffersonville, IN

 Monthly data are transmitted to BLS

Census Bureau: Processing Activities
 Decentralized data 

collection

 Conducted by the 

Census Bureau 

through its 12 ROs

 RO responsibilities 

vary in geographic 

scope, e.g.: 

– New York RO: 19 counties

– Denver RO: 10 states 

– Los Angeles RO: Hawaii, 

Southern California

Census Bureau: Regional Offices
 Interview Survey

 Multiple contacts may be required

 Diary Survey

 Multiple contacts are required

 Contact History Instrument (CHI)

 Part of both surveys

 Data on nature and outcome of contact

 Concerns of reluctant respondents

 Source of detailed information about the survey 

process

Interviewing
 CE interview survey is designed to be 

conducted in person

 Approximately 33% of interviews are 

conducted by telephone

 Policies recently updated to provide guidelines for 

telephone interviewing

 Barriers to personal interviews

 Controlled access building and gated communities

 Severe weather conditions (e.g., blizzard) 

 Respondent request for telephone interview

Interviewing: Mode
CE Response Rates, 2000-2010

68

70

72

74

76

78

80

82

20002001200220032004200520062007200820092010

CEQ

CED

Response Rates

Year
 BLS and Census have worked together to 

improve response rates through: 

 Incentives test

 Better data collection instruments

 User-friendly diary

 Improvements to CAPI content and operation

 Improved field materials

 Promotional materials about the surveys

 Translating advance letters into Spanish and other 

languages

 Revised and updated Information Book

 More focused FR training

Achieving Response Rate Goals