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These prototype statistics measure the allocation of Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) across households. PCE estimates are produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis as a part of the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) and measure the value of goods and services purchased by, and on behalf of, US residents.
The PCE distributions are produced as a part of an OECD effort to produce distributional national account statistics. We produce the PCE distributional results in conjunction with the BEA who produce distributions of personal income.
PCE distributional results for 2017–2020 (last updated December 27, 2022)
We create prototype distributional statistics for Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE). PCE is allocated across consumer units using data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE). For more detail about the methodology see the methodology summary.
Summary of process for creating distribution of PCE using CE data:
For the year 2017, we explore several methodology updates under consideration. See the details and interim results.
Garner, T.I., Martin, R.S., Matsumoto, B. and Curtin, S. 2022 "Distribution of U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures for 2019: A Prototype Based on Consumer Expenditure Survey Data." BLS Working Paper 557 - https://www.bls.gov/osmr/research-papers/2022/pdf/ec220120.pdf.
Garner, T.I. and Short, K.S. 2013 "A Multi-dimensional Measure of Economic Well-Being for the U.S.: The Material Condition Index." - https://www.bls.gov/osmr/research-papers/2013/pdf/st130030.pdf
BEA – Distribution of personal income - https://www.bea.gov/data/special-topics/distribution-of-personal-income.
OECD – EG DNA - https://www.oecd.org/sdd/na/household-distributional-results-in-line-with-national-accounts-experimental-statistics.htm.
Curtin, S. The Impact of COVID-19 on CE Survey Estimates for 2020 - https://www.bls.gov/cex/research_papers/pdf/curtin-2020-annual-COVID-impact.pdf.
CE 2020 Annual Report - https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/consumer-expenditures/2020/home.htm.
Last Modified Date: July 6, 2023