DOI: 10.3886/icpsr08423.v1
title: Consumer Expenditure Survey, 1980-1981: Interview Survey
title: Version 1

description: The ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) provides detailed information on income and expenditures and also furnishes the Bureau of Labor Statistics with data needed to maintain and review the Consumer Price Index. The quarterly Interview Survey component of the CES was designed to gather data on major items of expense, household characteristics, and income. Expenditures examined in this survey are those which respondents could be expected to recall fairly accurately for three months or longer. Consumer units, which are roughly equivalent to households, are interviewed once per quarter for five consectutive quarters. The initial interview collects demographic and family characteristics data and an inventory of major durable goods for each consumer unit. Expenditures are collected in this interview using a one-month recall. They are used along with the inventory information to bound the expenditure responsed for subsequent interviews and to classify the unit for analysis. The bounding of expenditure responses prevents duplicate reporting in subsequent interviews. Because the collected expenditure estimates in this initial interview are used for bounding purposes and not for expenditure estimates, these data are not placed on the files. The second through fifth interviews use uniform questionnaires to collect expenditure information in each quarter. Income information, such as wage, salary, unemployment compensation, child support, alimony, as well as information on the employment of each household member, are collected in the second and fifth interviews only. For new consumer unit members and members who started work since the previous interview, wage, salary, and other information on employment are collected in the third and fourth interviews. If there is no new employment information, it is carried over from the second interview to the third and fourth interviews. In the fifth interview, a supplement is used to collect information on stock values and changes in balances of assets and liabilities. There are four files of data in this collection. The Family Characteristis and Income (FMLY) files (Parts 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 29, and 33) contain consumer unit characteristics, consumer unit income, characteristics and earnings of the reference person, and characteristics and earnings of the spouse. The Member Characteristics and Income (MEMB) files (Parts 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, and 34) supply selected characteristics for each consumer unit member, including reference person and spouse. The Detailed Expenditure (MTAB) files (Parts 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, 31, and 35) furnish monthly data at the Universal Classification Code (UCC) level. In these files expenditures for each consumer unit are classified according to UCC categories and are specified as gifts or non-gifts. The income (ITAB) files (Parts 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, and 36) contain monthly data for consumer unit characteristics and income at the UCC level. There are in addition nine detailed expenditure files (Parts 37-45).
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Family Characteristics and Income File, First Quarter, 1980 
 DS2: Member Characteristics and Income File, First Quarter, 1980 
 DS3: Detailed Expenditure File, First Quarter, 1980 
 DS4: Income File, First Quarter, 1980 
 DS5: Family Characteristics and Income File, Second Quarter, 1908 
 DS6: Member Characteristics and Income File, Second Quarter, 1980 
 DS7: Detailed Expenditure File, Second Quarter, 1980 
 DS8: Income File, Second Quarter, 1980 
 DS9: Family Characteristics and Income File, Third Quarter, 1980 
 DS10: Member Characteristics and Income File, Third Quarter, 1980 
 DS11: Detailed Expenditure File, Third Quarter, 1980 
 DS12: Income File, Third Quarter, 1980 
 DS13: Family Characteristics and Income File, Fourth Quarter, 1980 
 DS14: Member Characteristics and Income File, Fourth Quarter, 1980 
 DS15: Detailed Expenditure File, Fourth Quarter, 1980 
 DS16: Income File, Fourth Quarter, 1980 
 DS17: Family Characteristics and Income File, First Quarter, 1981 
 DS18: Member Characteristics and Income File, First Quarter, 1981 
 DS19: Detailed Expenditure File, First Quarter, 1981 
 DS20: Income File, First Quarter, 1981 
 DS21: Family Characteristics and Income File, Second Quarter, 1981 
 DS22: Member Characteristics and Income File, Second Quarter, 1981 
 DS23: Detailed Expenditure File, Second Quarter, 1981 
 DS24: Income File, Second Quarter, 1981 
 DS25: Family Characteristics and Income File, Third Quarter, 1981 
 DS26: Member Characteristics and Income File, Third Quarter, 1981 
 DS27: Detailed Expenditure File, Third Quarter, 1981 
 DS28: Income File, Third Quarter, 1981 
 DS29: Family Characteristics and Income File, Fourth Quarter, 1981 
 DS30: Member Characteristics and Income File, Fourth Quarter, 1981 
 DS31: Detailed Expenditure File, Fourth Quarter, 1981 
 DS32: Income File, Fourth Quarter, 1981 
 DS33: Family Characteristics and Income File, First Quarter, 1982 
 DS34: Member Characteristics and Income File, First Quarter, 1982 
 DS35: Detailed Expenditure File, First Quarter, 1982 
 DS36: Income File, First Quarter, 1982 
 DS37: Inventory and Purchase of Household Appliances 
 DS38: Inventory of Household Appliances 
 DS39: Hospitalization and Health Insurance, Detailed Questions 
 DS40: Hospitalization and Health Insurance, Medicare and Medicaid 
 DS41: Medical and Health Expenditures, Payments for Medical Expenses 
 DS42: Medical and Health Expenditures, Reimbursements for Expenses 
 DS43: Inventory and Purchases of Owned Vehicles 
 DS44: Disposal of Owned Vehicles 
 DS45: Trips and Vacations 
 DS46: Aggregration File 
 DS47: Label File 
 DS48: Universal Classification Code 
 DS49: Vehicle Make and Model
description: Consumer Expenditure Survey Series
description: The codebook is provided by the principal investigator as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.
description: All civilian noninstitutionalized persons in the United States.
description: National probability sample of households designed to be representative of the population of interest.