Research highlights of the Consumer Expenditure Survey redesign

Research is underway to help determine the best ways to improve the expenditure data generated by the Consumer Expenditure (CE) Survey, an ongoing survey that collects information on spending, income, and household characteristics. To determine how to optimally redesign the CE Survey, the Gemini Project was begun in 2009 with the goal of reducing measurement error, particularly error generally associated with underreporting, and with a secondary goal of halting or reversing the decline in response rates while also managing operational costs. The motivation, challenges, and independent expert recommendations for the redesign initiative are discussed in the article, along with data quality, respondent burden, and cost considerations associated with various potential CE Survey redesign features. The paper also discusses that an evaluation of the effectiveness of a survey redesign requires that a monitoring system identify the impact of each survey stage on measurement error and that it measure respondents’ perceived burden. The article concludes by pointing out how current research results inform and align with the next steps planned for the CE Survey redesign process.