DOI: 10.3886/icpsr09333.v1
title: Consumer Expenditure Survey, 1987: Diary Survey
title: Version 1

description: The ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) provides a 
 continuous, comprehensive flow of data on the buying habits of American 
 consumers. In addition, these data are used to maintain and to review 
 the Consumer Price Index. The Diary, or recordkeeping, component of the 
 CES contains expenditure data for items purchased on a daily or weekly 
 basis. Participants from consumer units, which are roughly equivalent 
 to households, are asked to maintain expense records, or diaries, of 
 all purchases made each day for two consecutive one-week periods. 
 Diaries are designed to record information on small, frequently 
 purchased items such as food, beverages, food consumed away from home, 
 gasoline, housekeeping supplies, nonprescription drugs and medical 
 supplies, and personal care products and services. Information is also 
 elicited at the end of the two-week period on work experience, 
 occupation, industry, retirement status, member earnings from wages and 
 salaries, net income from business or profession, net income from one's 
 own farm, and income from other sources. The unit of analysis for the 
 Consumer Expenditure Surveys is the consumer unit, consisting of all 
 members of a particular housing unit who are related by blood, 
 marriage, adoption, or some other legal arrangement. Consumer unit 
 determination for unrelated persons is based on financial independence. 
 The Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income (FMLY) files supply 
 information on consumer unit characteristics, consumer unit income, and 
 characteristics and earnings of the reference person and his or her 
 spouse. Member Characteristics (MEMB) files contain selected 
 characteristics for each consumer unit member, including reference 
 person and spouse. The Detailed Expenditures (EXPN) files present 
 weekly data on expenditures at the UCC level, while the Income (DTAB) 
files contain weekly data on income at the UCC level.
description: This survey is based on a national probability sample of 
 households. The sampling frame (i.e., the list from which housing units 
 were chosen) for this survey was generated from the 1980 Census 100 
 percent detail file. Each selected sample unit is requested to keep two 
 one-week diaries of expenditures over consecutive weeks. The earliest 
 possible day for placing a diary with a household is predesignated so 
 that each day of the week has an equal chance to start the reference 
 week and the diaries are evenly spaced throughout the year. During the 
 last six weeks of the year, the diary sample is supplemented to twice 
 its normal size to increase the reportings of types of expenditures 
unique to the holiday season.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: 1987 First Quarter: Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income
DS2: 1987 First Quarter: Member Characteristics
DS3: 1987 First Quarter: Detailed Expenditures
DS4: 1987 First Quarter: Income
DS5: 1987 Second Quarter: Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income
DS6: 1987 Second Quarter: Member Characteristics
DS7: 1987 Second Quarter: Detailed Expenditures
DS8: 1987 Second Quarter: Income
DS9: 1987 Third Quarter: Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income
DS10: 1987 Third Quarter: Member Characteristics
DS11: 1987 Third Quarter: Detailed Expenditures
DS12: 1987 Third Quarter: Income
DS13: 1987 Fourth Quarter: Consumer Unit Characteristics and Income
DS14: 1987 Fourth Quarter: Member Characteristics
DS15: 1987 Fourth Quarter: Detailed Expenditures
DS16: 1987 Fourth Quarter: Income
DS17: 1987 Publication Aggregation
DS18: 1987 Publication Labels
DS19: 1987: Universal Classification Codes and Their Titles
DS21: May 1991 Errata
description: Civilian noninstitutional population of the United States.
description: Documentation is machine-readable only. A sample 
 program is included in the 1987 documentation that permits the user to 
 create 1987 Diary News Release output. This allows the user to verify 
 that the copy of the tape contains valid data, illustrates BLS's 
 methodology in producing publication tables, and offers an example of 
 coding to access the tape. In addition, integrated data from the Diary 
 and Interview portions of the Consumer Expenditure Survey were made 
 available for the first time in 1987. Reference to this material 
appears in the EXPN and DTAB files under the variable PUB_FLAG.