Documenting the Consumer Expenditure Surveys Processing with DDI

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) is a US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) program designed to measure how US families spend their money. The data are also used as input to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), issued monthly. CE management has identified the need to document all the processes used by BLS to transform CE data from collection to dissemination, DDI 3.2 was selected as the metadata framework for accomplishing this, and the suite of software from Colectica was selected to build a system. CE is conducted as 2 separate surveys, Interview and Diary. Then, the data are combined during processing. Through the process, data are packaged in 2 ways, one way for CE dissemination and the other for the CPI. Variables, code sets, questionnaire, and other features undergo changes in every odd numbered year. Estimates are created every 6 months for the previous year. Data are sent to CPI monthly. In addition, CE processing is divided into 4 phases, loosely defined as: Phase 1 – sample selection and collection; Phase 2 – initial edit subsystem; Phase 3 – estimation and edit subsystem, and data sent to CPI; and Phase 4 – final edits, tables, microdata. Management needs to be able to follow data through all the phases to track and manage the production process. Forward and backward paths need to be shown. So, a documentation system must be able to account for all these needs. To do this, the BLS is conducting a phased approach, starting simple and adding complexity as experience is gained. The incremental systems are designed to establish that DDI and the Colectica system are sufficiently sophisticated to handle the needs of CE. This presentation will go into more detail about the particulars of the CE survey and describe results and plans for building a system.