Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures

Robust and reliable measures of consumer expenditures are essential for analyzing aggregate economic activity and for measuring differences in household circumstances. Many countries, including the United States, are embarking on ambitious projects to redesign surveys of consumer expenditures, with the goal of better capturing economic heterogeneity. This is an appropriate time to examine the way consumer expenditures are currently measured, and the challenges and opportunities that alternative approaches might present.

"Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures" begins with a comprehensive review of current methodologies for collecting consumer expenditure data. Subsequent chapters highlight the range of different objectives that expenditure surveys may satisfy, compare the data available from consumer expenditure surveys with that available from other sources, and describe how the United States's current survey practices compare with those in other nations.


Contents:

Prefatory Note

Introduction
Christopher D. Carroll, Thomas F. Crossley, and John Sabelhaus

I. What Do We Already Know about Collecting Household Expenditure Data?
1. Asking Households about Expenditures: What Have We Learned? – Thomas F. Crossley and Joachim K. Winter

II. Goals for the Expenditure Survey Redesign
2. Constructing a PCE-Weighted Consumer Price Index – Caitlin Blair
3. The Benefits of Panel Data in Consumer Expenditure Surveys – Jonathan A. Parker, Nicholas S. Souleles, and Christopher D. Carroll
4. The Evolution of Income, Consumption, and Leisure Inequality in the United States, 1980-2010 – Orazio Attanasio, Erik Hurst, and Luigi Pistaferri
5. Using the CE to Model Household Demand – Laura Blow, Valerie Lechene, and Peter Levell

III. Evaluating the Existing CE Survey
6. Understanding the Relationship: CE Survey and PCE – William Passero, Thesia I. Garner, and Clinton McCully
7. The Validity of Consumption Data: Are the Consumer Expenditure Interview and Diary Surveys Informative? – Adam Bee, Bruce D. Meyer, and James X. Sullivan
8. Is the Consumer Expenditure Survey Representative by Income? – John Sabelhaus, David Johnson, Stephen Ash, David Swanson, Thesia I. Garner, John Greenlees, and Steve Henderson
9. A Comparison of Micro and Macro Expenditure Measures across Countries Using Differing Survey Methods – Garry Barrett, Peter Levell, and Kevin Milligan

IV. Alternative Approaches to Data Collection
10. Measuring the Accuracy of Survey Responses Using Administrative Register Data: Evidence from Denmark – Claus Thustrup Kreiner, David Dreyer Lassen, and S?ren Leth-Petersen
11. Judging the Quality of Survey Data by Comparison with "Truth" as Measured by Administrative Records: Evidence from Sweden – Ralph Koijen, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, and Roine Vestman
12. Exploring a Balance Edit Approach in the Consumer Expenditure Quarterly Interview Survey – Scott Fricker, Brandon Kopp, and Nhien To
13. Measuring Total Household Spending in a Monthly Internet Survey: Evidence from the American Life Panel – Michael D. Hurd and Susann Rohwedder
14. Wealth Dynamics and Active Saving at Older Ages – Michael D. Hurd and Susann Rohwedder
15. Measuring Household Spending and Payment Habits: The Role of "Typical" and "Specific" Time Frames in Survey Questions – Marco Angrisani, Arie Kapteyn, and Scott Schuh
16. The Potential Use of In-Home Scanner Technology for Budget Surveys – Andrew Leicester

List of Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index