DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36275.v1
title: Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2013: Diary Survey Files
title: Version 1

description: The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) program provides a continuous and comprehensive flow of data on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics. These data are used widely in economic research and analysis, and in support of revisions of the Consumer Price Index. The CE program is comprised of two separate components (each with its own survey questionnaire and independent sample), the Diary Survey and the quarterly Interview Survey (ICPSR 36237). This data collection contains the Diary Survey component, which was designed to obtain data on frequently purchased smaller items, including food and beverages (both at home and in food establishments), gasoline, housekeeping supplies, tobacco, nonprescription drugs, and personal care products and services. Each consumer unit (CU) recorded its expenditures in a diary for two consecutive 1-week periods. Although the diary was designed to collect information on expenditures that could not be easily recalled over time, respondents were asked to report all expenses (except overnight travel) that the CU incurred during the survey week. The 2013 Diary Survey release contains five sets of data files (FMLD, MEMD, EXPD, DTBD, DTID), and one processing file (DSTUB). The FMLD, MEMD, EXPD, DTBD, and DTID files are organized by the quarter of the calendar year in which the data were collected. There are four quarterly datasets for each of these files. The FMLD files contain CU characteristics, income, and summary level expenditures; the MEMD files contain member characteristics and income data; the EXPD files contain detailed weekly expenditures at the Universal Classification Code (UCC) level; the DTBD files contain the CU's reported annual income values or the mean of the five imputed income values in the multiple imputation method; and the DTID files contain the five imputed income values. Please note that the summary level expenditure and income information on the FMLD files permit the data user to link consumer spending, by general expenditure category, and household characteristics and demographics on one set of files. The DSTUB file provides the aggregation scheme used in the published consumer expenditure tables. The DSTUB file is further explained in Section III.F.6. "Processing Files" of the Diary Survey Users' Guide. A second documentation guide, the "Users' Guide to Income Imputation," includes information on how to appropriately use the imputed income data. Demographic and family characteristics data include age, sex, race, marital status, and CU relationships for each CU member. Income information was also collected, such as wage, salary, unemployment compensation, child support, and alimony, as well as information on the employment of each CU member age 14 and over.
description: The data are not weighted. However, the data files feature various weight variables that users may wish to apply during analyses. Please refer to the Diary Survey Users' Guide for a detailed explanation of the weighting procedures.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Created variable labels and/or value labels..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: First Quarter, 2013: Consumer Unit (CU) Characteristics and Income File (FMLD) 
 DS2: First Quarter, 2013: Member Characteristics and Income File (MEMD) 
 DS3: First Quarter, 2013: Detailed Expenditures File (EXPD) 
 DS4: First Quarter, 2013: Income File (DTBD) 
 DS5: First Quarter, 2013: Imputed Income File (DTID) 
 DS6: Second Quarter, 2013: Consumer Unit (CU) Characteristics and Income File (FMLD) 
 DS7: Second Quarter, 2013: Member Characteristics and Income File (MEMD) 
 DS8: Second Quarter, 2013: Detailed Expenditures File (EXPD) 
 DS9: Second Quarter, 2013: Income File (DTBD) 
 DS10: Second Quarter, 2013: Imputed Income File (DTID) 
 DS11: Third Quarter, 2013: Consumer Unit (CU) Characteristics and Income File (FMLD) 
 DS12: Third Quarter, 2013: Member Characteristics and Income File (MEMD) 
 DS13: Third Quarter, 2013: Detailed Expenditures File (EXPD) 
 DS14: Third Quarter, 2013: Income File (DTBD) 
 DS15: Third Quarter, 2013: Imputed Income File (DTID) 
 DS16: Fourth Quarter, 2013: Consumer Unit (CU) Characteristics and Income File (FMLD) 
 DS17: Fourth Quarter, 2013: Member Characteristics and Income File (MEMD) 
 DS18: Fourth Quarter, 2013: Detailed Expenditures File (EXPD) 
 DS19: Fourth Quarter, 2013: Income File (DTBD) 
 DS20: Fourth Quarter, 2013: Imputed Income File (DTID)
description: Consumer Expenditure Survey Series
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI), face-to-face interview 
This collection has been minimally processed. ICPSR has extracted variable label and value label information from the Diary Data Dictionary (contained within the ICPSR Codebook) and applied these labels to the corresponding data files. Additionally, UCC item codes have been applied for each UCC variable.
Variable NEWID (CU's unique identification number) can be used to link records across the data files.
 Please refer to the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey Web page for additional information about this data series.
description: Eligible population includes all civilian non-institutional persons. Smallest Geographic Unit: Primary Sampling Unit
description: National probability sample of households designed to represent the total United States non-institutionalized civilian population.