Consumer Expenditure Survey, 1991: Diary Survey (ICPSR 6210)

Principal Investigator(s): United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Summary: The ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) provides a continuous flow of information on the buying habits of American consumers and also furnishes data to support periodic revisions of the Consumer Price Index. The survey consists of two separate components: (1) a quarterly Interview Survey in which each consumer unit in the sample is interviewed every three months over a 15-month period, and (2) a Diary Survey completed by the sample consumer units for two consecutive one-week ... (more info)

Series: Consumer Expenditure Survey Series

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U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. CONSUMER EXPENDITURE SURVEY, 1991: DIARY SURVEY. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census [producer], 1993. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1993. doi:10.3886/ICPSR06210.v1

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06210.v1

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Summary:   The ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) provides a continuous flow of information on the buying habits of American consumers and also furnishes data to support periodic revisions of the Consumer Price Index. The survey consists of two separate components: (1) a quarterly Interview Survey in which each consumer unit in the sample is interviewed every three months over a 15-month period, and (2) a Diary Survey completed by the sample consumer units for two consecutive one-week periods. The Diary Survey contains consumer 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. Participants were asked to maintain expense records, or diaries, of all purchases made each day for two consecutive one-week periods. Information was also elicited at the end of the two-week period on work experience, occupation, industry, retirement status, earnings from wages and salaries, net income from business or profession, net income from one's own farm, and income from other sources. 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. A consumer unit consists 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. 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 Universal Classification Code (UCC) level, while the Income (DTAB) files contain weekly data on income at the UCC level.

Subject Terms:   automobile expenses, consumer behavior, consumer expenditures, consumption, debt, demographic characteristics, energy consumption, food costs, household budgets, household expenditures, household income, purchasing, recreation expenses

Geographic Coverage:   United States

Time Period:  

• 1991

Universe:   Civilian noninstitutional population of the United States.

Data Types:   survey data

Data Collection Notes:

(1) Documentation for the Diary data has been restructured beginning with the 1991 survey year. (2) Part 11, 1991 Third Quarter: Detailed Expenditures, contains 122,346 records, not 122,340 records as listed in the documentation.

Sample:   This survey is based on a national probability sample of households. The sampling frame for this survey (i.e., the list from which housing units were chosen) 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.

Data Source:

personal interviews, and self-enumerated forms

Extent of Processing:  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:

• Standardized missing values.

Original ICPSR Release:  1993-12-18

Version History:

• 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 21 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.
• 2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 20 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

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