Abstract #300559

This is the preliminary program for the 2003 Joint Statistical Meetings in San Francisco, California. Currently included in this program is the "technical" program, schedule of invited, topic contributed, regular contributed and poster sessions; Continuing Education courses (August 2-5, 2003); and Committee and Business Meetings. This on-line program will be updated frequently to reflect the most current revisions.

To View the Program:
You may choose to view all activities of the program or just parts of it at any one time. All activities are arranged by date and time.

The views expressed here are those of the individual authors
and not necessarily those of the ASA or its board, officers, or staff.

Back to main JSM 2003 Program page
JSM 2003 Abstract #300559
Activity Number: 467
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Thursday, August 7, 2003 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
Abstract - #300559
Title: Making Complex Data Available to Users with Simple Tools: The Case of the Survey of Consumer Finances
Author(s): Ryan M. Bledsoe*+
Companies: Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Address: 37 North Oakland St., Arlington, VA, 22203-3531,
Keywords: data access ; graphical analysis ; software
Abstract:

This paper discusses the development of new software tools to assist users in working with data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Although the SCF has only about 4,400 observations, it has far more variables and the relationships among those variables are often quite complex. Historically, the survey data have been provided to the public in SAS datasets. This mode of storage has been a problem for a number of key users who do not have access to SAS. In an attempt to satisfy public demand for SCF data, extract files containing the variables of most routine interest were made available in Excel format on the project web site. However, this file also proved difficult for users largely because of the necessity of using weights in the descriptive analyses. Recently developed software written in Visual Basic allows users to create properly weighted tables in the Excel data files using a macro function. Two new types prepackaged analyses derived using a more complex version of the software are also made available: a set of tables in Excel that replicates and extends official publications and a graphical version of this information in the form of a time series chartbook.

  • The address information is for the authors that have a + after their name.
  • Authors who are presenting talks have a * after their name.

Back to the full JSM 2003 program

JSM 2003 For information, contact meetings@amstat.org or phone (703) 684-1221. If you have questions about the Continuing Education program, please contact the Education Department.
Revised March 2003