Survey of Consumer Finances, 1970 (ICPSR 7450)

Version Date: Jan 10, 2022

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Principal Investigator(s):
University of Michigan. Survey Research Center. Economic Behavior Program

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07450.v2

Version V2 ()

  • V2 [2022-01-10]
  • V1 [1992-02-16] unpublished
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Summary

This data collection is one in a series of financial surveys of consumers conducted annually since 1946. In a nationally representative sample, the head of each family unit was interviewed. Starting in 1966, in order to examine the effect that increased car ownership was having on American families, the data collected in this series were organized so that they could be analyzed by both family unit and car unit. The 1970 data are based on car unit. Survey questions regarding automobiles included number of drivers and car owners in the family, make and model of each car, purchase method, car financing and installment debt, and expectations of car purchases in the coming year. Other questions in the 1970 survey covered the respondent's attitudes toward national economic conditions (e.g., the effect of income tax, Vietnam War involvement, and relations with other communist countries on United States business) and price activity, as well as the respondent's own financial situation. Other questions examined the family unit head's occupation, and the nature and amount of the family's income, debts, liquid assets, changes in liquid assets, savings, investment preferences, and actual and expected purchases of major durables. In addition, the survey explored in detail the subject of housing, e.g., previous and present home ownership, value of respondent's dwelling, and mortgage information. Questions in this survey also focused on life insurance coverage, mutual funds, and credit card use. Personal data include age and education of head, household composition, and occupation.

Citation

University of Michigan. Survey Research Center. Economic Behavior Program. Survey of Consumer Finances, 1970. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-01-10. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07450.v2

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Funding

Ford Foundation, National Science Foundation, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corporation

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Region

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1970

Date of Collection

1970

Data Collection Notes

  1. In order to prevent the disclosure of identifying information, responses to variable V14 have been masked.

  2. Data on a family unit basis have a record for each family, with car information only for the first (usually the newest) car owned. Data on a car unit basis have a record for every car owned by the family. By using a global filter, data on a car unit basis can also be analyzed on a family unit basis. The frequencies in the codebook have been filtered on a family unit basis.

  3. For additional information on the Survey of Consumer Finances Study, please visit the Survey of Consumer Finances website.
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Study Purpose

The purpose of this survey series is to forecast changes in aggregate consumer behavior.

Sample

The sample was made up of a national cross-section of family units.

Universe

The population of the United States.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual, Household

Data Source

personal interviews

Data Type(s)

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Original Release Date

1984-05-11

Version History

2022-01-10 Masked variable V14 for disclosure issues.

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:

  • University of Michigan. Survey Research Center. Economic Behavior Program. Survey of Consumer Finances, 1970. ICPSR07450-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-01-10. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07450.v2

1984-05-11 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:

  • Performed consistency checks.
  • Standardized missing values.

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Notes