TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hurd, Michael D
AU  - Rohwedder, Susann
TI  - Measuring Total Household Spending in a Monthly Internet Survey: Evidence from the American Life Panel
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17974
PY  - 2012
Y2  - April 2012
DO  - 10.3386/w17974
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17974
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17974.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Michael D. Hurd
RAND Corporation
1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90407
Tel: 310/451-6945
Fax: 310/451-6923
E-Mail: mhurd@rand.org

Susann Rohwedder
RAND Corporation
1776 Main Street
P.O. Box 2138
Santa Monica, CA 90407
Tel: 310-393 0411,ext. 7885
Fax: 310-451-6923
E-Mail: susannr@rand.org
M1  - published as Michael D. Hurd, Susann Rohwedder. "Measuring Total Household Spending in a Monthly Internet Survey: Evidence from the American Life Panel," in Christopher D. Carroll, Thomas F. Crossley, and John Sabelhaus, editors, "Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures" University of Chicago Press (2015)

AB  - Beginning in May 2009 we fielded a monthly Internet survey designed to measure total household spending as the aggregate of about 40 spending components.  This paper reports on a number of outcomes from 30 waves of data collection.  These outcomes include sample attrition, indicators of data quality such as item nonresponse and the variance in total spending, and substantive results such as the trajectory of total spending and the trajectories of some components of spending.  We conclude that high-frequency surveying for total spending is feasible and that the resulting data show expected patterns of levels and change.
ER  -