Comparison of Multiple Sources of Administrative and Survey Data for Consumer Expenditures

• Activity Number: 65
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 1, 2010 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Government Statistics
• Author(s): John L. Eltinge*+
• Companies: Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Keywords: aggregation and reference-period effects ; complex survey data ; data quality ; filters ; fixed and variable cost components ; household and establishment surveys

Abstract

In estimation of level and change in consumer expenditures, one may consider use of several sources of data, including surveys and administrative records based on consumers, outlets or intermediaries. This paper provides an overview of methods for: (1) comparison of the prospective sources of expenditure data; and (2) use of these comparison results to decide which sources to use in production-level estimation; (3) extension of (1) and (2) to develop specific procedures for estimation of mean expenditures and related model coefficients; and (4) identification of components of variability to incorporate into related inferential statistics. The comparisons direct primary attention to definitional issues; sampling variability; aggregation and reference-period effects; incomplete data; measurement errors; and fixed and variable components of cost.