In recent years, some CPS studies have been subtitled to reflect supplemental topics. The Consumer Surveys cover a period from the 1950's to 1991 and were conducted on a monthly basis since 1978. Their main intention is to provide measures of consumer confidence and information necessary to forecast aggregate consumer behavior. Besides, they contain consumer's appraisals of present market conditions for the purchase of durable goods including houses, evaluations and expectations about personal finances, employment, price changes, and the national business situation. The focus of the surveys is toward the distribution of consumer income, assets, debt, and major transactions.
Personal characteristics are also available.
The CES is mainly concerned with the purchasing habits of American consumers and seeks to be representative of the total civilian, non-institutionalized population of the US from 1960 through 1992. The NSLY cohort has been surveyed yearly since 1979, the other cohorts have been surveyed at least 12 times over the years. In addition, many of these categories are not restricted to US data but offer international data as well. All rights reserved.