Consumer Expenditure Survey, 1980-1981 : Interview Survey

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Summary

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 ...

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).Cf: http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08423.v2

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