Going Online: Results from the Consumer Expenditure Survey’s Large Scale Online Diary Feasibility Test

• Activity Number: 475 - Recent Advances in Sample and Survey Design
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 6, 2020 : 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Parvati Krishnamurty*
• Companies: Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Keywords: response rate; online diaries; survey redesign; mode; expenditure diary

Abstract

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has been working on a project to redesign the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) with the primary goal of reducing measurement error. Online diaries may reduce measurement error by enabling contemporaneous reporting of expenditures. As part of the redesign, the CE survey has been developing and testing an online diary initially designed by Westat. The CE is currently conducting a Large Scale Feasibility test (LSF) of the online diary prior to its implementation into production. The test is being fielded from October 2019 to April 2020 and the main objectives are to assess the feasibility of completing a two-week diary survey using a device-optimized online diary and identify any methodological, operational, or technical issues. In this presentation we will discuss the LSF test's design, mode placement, lessons learned, and preliminary results on response rates. This presentation will be of interest to survey methodologists, data producers, and data users.