Affiliations: [a] Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D.C.
USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Address correspondence to Thesia I. Garner, Division of Price and Index
Number Research, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D.C., 20212. The
views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent an
official position of the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of the Labor
Statistics (BLS) or views of other BLS staff members.
Abstract: The Consumer Expenditure (CE) Survey data are a collection of detailed consumer
expenditures, income, and consumer unit characteristics. The data set is a rich
source of information available to researchers conducting economic analysis. The
purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the projects being undertaken
at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in which these data are being utilized and to
suggest directions for future research. The paper focuses primarily on the
estimation of aggregate statistics, index numer reseach, econometric modeling,
and survey research methodology. Topics addressed include: weighting,
moving-weight price indexes, price indexes for demographic subgroups, interarea
price indexes, tax and price indexes, demand analysis, statistical and
econometric techniques, the econometrics of panel data, income and consumption
distributions, cognitive research, composite estimation, non-normal distribution
testing, and data imputation. Noted are changes in the survey methodology, which
were introduced with the Continuing Consumer Expenditure Survey, and topics,
within statistical methods, which focus on improving the measurement of CE
variables.
