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Chapter 16.
Consumer Expenditures and Income
Consumer expenditure surveys are specialized studies
in which the primary emphasis is on collecting data
related to family expenditures for goods and services
used in day-to-day living. Consumer expenditure surveys
of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, the Bureau) also
collect information on the amount and sources of family
income, changes in assets and liabilities, and demographic
and economic characteristics of family members.
Background
The Bureau’s studies of family living conditions rank among its
oldest data-collecting functions. The first nationwide expenditure
survey was conducted in 1888-91 to study workers’ spending
patterns as elements of production costs. With special reference
to competition in foreign trade, the survey emphasized the worker’s
role as a producer rather than as a consumer. In response to
rapid price changes prior to the turn of the century, a second
survey was administered in 1901. The resulting data provided the
weights for an index of prices of food purchased by workers, which
was used as a deflator for workers’ incomes and expenditures for
all kinds of goods until World War I. A third survey, conducted
in 1917-19, provided weights for computing a cost-of-living index,
now known as the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The Bureau conducted
its next major survey, covering only urban wage earners and clerical
workers, in 1934-36, primarily to revise the CPI weights.
During the economic depression of the 1930s, the use of consumer
expenditure surveys extended from the study of the welfare of selected
groups to more general economic analysis. Concurrent with its 1934-36
investigation, the Bureau cooperated with four other Federal agencies
in a fifth survey, the 1935-36 study of consumer purchases, which
presented consumption estimates for both urban and rural segments
of the population. The sixth survey, in 1950, covered only urban
consumers; it was an abbreviated version of the 1935-36 study. The
seventh survey, the 1960-61 Survey of Consumer Expenditures, once
again included both urban and rural families, and provided the basis
for revising the CPI weights while also supplying material for broader
economic, social, and market analyses.
The next major survey to collect information on expenditures of
householders in the United States was conducted in 1972-73.
That survey, while providing continuity with the content of
the Bureau’s previous surveys, departed from the past in its
collection techniques. Unlike earlier surveys, the U.S. Census
Bureau, under contract to BLS, conducted all sample selection
and field work. Another significant change was the use of two
independent surveys to collect the information—a diary survey and
an interview panel survey. A third major change was the switch from
an annual recall to a quarterly recall (in the Interview Survey) and
daily recordkeeping of expenditures (in the Diary Survey). Again,
the resulting data were used to revise the CPI weights.
Next: The Current
Survey
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Bureau of Labor Statistics
