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April 2011

Consumer Expenditure Survey Microdata Users’ Workshop, July 2010

Geoffrey D. Paulin

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) is the most detailed source of expenditures, demographics, and income data collected by the Federal Government. The data are collected in two component surveys: the Quarterly Interview Survey (henceforth referred to as the Interview Survey) and the Diary Survey. Each year, the CE program releases microdata from these surveys; these microdata are used by researchers in a variety of areas, including academia, government, market research, and other private industry. Since 2006, the Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys (DCES) has conducted an annual workshop each July for users of the CE microdata. Held in the conference facilities of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) headquarters in Washington, D.C., the workshops have included speakers demonstrating features of the data, as well as reports from researchers who have used these data in their work.

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