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Consumer Expenditure Surveys
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Consumption Research
BLS and outside sources have published numerous research papers and reports that relate to consumption measurement; we limit citations to those published between 2003 and 2023. This page also provides information on BLS past and upcoming presentations. Reference the resources at the bottom of this page to learn more about consumption research.
BLS Research
Research Products
- Garner, Thesia I., Brett Matsumoto, Jake Schild, Scott Curtin, and Adam Safir, "Developing a consumption measure, with examples of use for poverty and inequality analysis: a new research product from BLS."
- Distribution of Personal Consumption Expenditures.
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Garner, Thesia I., Robert S. Martin, Brett Matsumoto, Scott Curtin, "Distribution of U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures Using Consumer Expenditure Surveys Data: Methods and Supplementary Results."
Presentations
- Jake Schild. "An Analysis of Poverty Through a Consumption Lens: Research from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics." APPAM Fall Research Conference. November 11, 2023.
- Garner, Thesia I. and Jake Schild. "Accounting for Rents and Net Implicit Rental Income in a SPM-like Measure Using Rental Equivalence for Owner-occupied housing." Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology Seminar. October 26, 2023.
- Brett Matsumoto. "Building a Consumption Measure for Inequality and Poverty Analysis." Southern Economic Association Conference. November 19, 2022.
- Garner, Thesia I. "Consumption as a Measure to Assess Poverty." Presented at the 2022 Association for Public Policy and Analysis (APPAM) Conference, March 29, 2022.
- Garner, Thesia I. "Consumption as a Resource Measure." FCSM Conference. November 4, 2021.
- Garner, Thesia I. and Kevin Corinth. "Evaluating Alternative Poverty Measures: A View from an Interagency Working Group." Southern Economics Association Annual Meeting, November 22, 2021.
- Garner, Thesia I., Brett Matsumoto, Jake Schild, Grayson Armstrong, Caleb Cho, and Juan Munoz. "Building a Consumption Poverty Measure: Initial Results Following Recommendations of a Federal Interagency Working Group." American Economics Association Annual Meeting during the ASSA Annual Meetings, January 8, 2022.
- Garner, Thesia I., Brett Matsumoto, Jake Schild, Grayson Armstrong, Caleb Cho, and Juan Munoz. "Building a Consumption "Poverty" Measure at the BLS: Initial Results." Presented at the 2022 Society of Government Economists Annual Conference, April 1, 2022.
- Garner, Thesia I. "BLS Distributional Statistics with focus on "Distributions of PCE and CE Consumption." FESAC Meeting, June 10 2022.
- Garner, Thesia I., Brett Matsumoto, and Jake Schild. "Are Expenditures Equal to Consumption? Research and Development at the BLS with Implications for Inequality and Poverty Measurement." JSM August 10, 2022.
- Garner, Thesia and Adam Safir. "Consumption Measurement with Consumer Expenditure Surveys Data: A Research Project." Presented during the FESAC Meeting December 10, 2021.
- Garner, Thesia and Kathleen S. Short. "A Multi-dimensional Measure of Economic Well-Being for the U.S.: The Material Condition Index." Presented during the JSM and SEA meetings, 2013.
- Johnson, David S. (2004). "Measuring Consumption and Consumption Poverty: Possibilities and Issues." Paper prepared for workshop entitled "Reconsidering the Federal Poverty Measure" at the American Enterprise Institute, November 2004.
Papers and Publications
- Caleb Cho, Brett Matsumoto, and Dominic Smith, "A Consumption Measure for Automobiles. Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2024.
- Garner, Thesia I., Brett Matsumoto, Jake Schild, Adam Safir, and Scott Curtin. "A Conceptual Framework for the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Surveys." Consumer Expenditure Surveys Program Report Series, October 4, 2022.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (2021). Consumer Expenditures in 2020. BLS Report 1096. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/consumer-expenditures/2020/pdf/home.pdf.
- Garner, Thesia, Brett Matsumoto, Jake Schild, and Adam Safir. 2021 Consumption Symposium and Consumption Short-term Research Plan. (forthcoming).
- Grayson Armstrong, Caleb Cho, Garner, Thesia, Brett Matsumoto, Juan Munoz, and Jake Schild. "Building a Consumption Poverty Measure: Initial Results Following Recommendations of a Federal Interagency Working Group." American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings (AEA P&P), https://www.bls.gov/osmr/research-papers/2022/pdf/ec220030.pdf. For computer code used to produce the results in the paper, see: https://www.bls.gov/cex/consumption.zip.
- Garner, Thesia and Kathleen S. Short. "A Multi-dimensional Measure of Economic Well-Being for the U.S.: The Material Condition Index." Presented during the JSM and SEA meetings, 2013.
Outside Research
- Aguiar, Mark and Erik Hurst (2005). "Consumption versus Expenditure." Journal of Political Economy, Volume 113, Number 5. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/491590.
- Fisher, J. D., Johnson, D. S., Smeeding, T. M., & Thompson, J. P. (2020). "Estimating the marginal propensity to consume using the distributions of income, consumption, and wealth." Journal of Macroeconomics, 65, 103218. https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/research-department-working-paper/2019/estimating-the-marginal-propensity-to-consume-using-the-distributions-income-consumption-wealth.aspx.
- Fisher, J., Johnson, D. S. & Smeeding, T. M. (2015). "Inequality of Income and Consumption in the U.S.: Measuring the Trends in Inequality from 1984 to 2011 for the Same Individuals." Review of Income and Wealth, 61(4), 630-650. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/roiw.12129.
- Jappelli, T and L Pistaferri (2017). Economics of Consumption: Theory and Evidence. Oxford University Press. New York, NY.
- Jones, C and P Klenow (2016). Beyond GDP? Welfare across Countries and Time. American Economic Review. 106 (9). 2426-2457. http://klenow.com/Jones_Klenow.pdf.
- Levy Institute. Consumption Poverty. https://www.levyinstitute.org/topics/consumption-poverty.
- The Levy Institute Measure of Time and Income Poverty. https://www.levyinstitute.org/research/the-levy-institute-measure-of-time-and-income-poverty.
- Meyer, Bruce D. and James X. Sullivan. Consumption and Income Poverty Dashboard. http://povertymeasurement.org/dashboard/.
- Meyer, Bruce D. and James X. Sullivan (2012a). "Identifying the Disadvantaged: Official Poverty, Consumption Poverty, and the New Supplemental Poverty Measure." Journal of Economic Perspectives-Volume 26, Number 3-Summer 2012-Pages 111-136. https://harris.uchicago.edu/files/identifythedisadvantaged.pdf.
- Meyer, Bruce D. and James X. Sullivan (2012b). Winning the War: Poverty from the Great Society to the Great Recession. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall, 133-183. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2012b_meyer.pdf.
Data Sources
- BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys
- BLS American Time Use Survey
- BEA Personal Consumption Expenditures
- BEA Household Production Satellite Account
- World Bank Global Consumption Database
Reports With Reference To Household Consumption Measurement
- An Overview of Data Comparisons between PSID and Other US Household Surveys, 2021
- Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP), 2018
- Final Report of the Interagency Technical Working Group (ITWG) on Evaluating Alternative Measures of Poverty, 2021
- Guide on Poverty Measurement, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), 2017
- ILO Report II Household income and expenditure statistics, 2003
- National Research Council (NRC)(1995). Measuring Poverty: A New Approach. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
- OECD Framework for Statistics on the Distribution of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth, 2013
Last Modified Date: January 31, 2024