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Consumer Expenditure Surveys
Bureau of Labor Statistics > Consumer Expenditure Survey > Home

2020 Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) Combined Agenda: Symposium and Microdata Users' Workshop

July 21-24, 2020

Individual meetings with CE staff members can be scheduled throughout the workshop. To do so, please send an email to CE_WORKSHOP_HELP@bls.gov. Be sure to describe the topic that you would like to discuss, as well as times you are available to speak with staff.

WebEx login information will be provided in a separate email to participants.

SYMPOSIUM:

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

(Online access to event opens at 1:30 pm)

  • 2:00-3:30 p.m. Presentations and Discussions
    • 2:00-2:10 p.m. Welcome - Adam Safir
    • 2:10-2:40 p.m. Gemini Redesign: Past, Present, and Future - Parvati Krishnamurty, BLS
    • 2:40-3:10 p.m. Going Online: Early Results from the CE's Large Scale Feasibility Test - Laura Erhard, BLS
    • 3:10-3:30 p.m. Discussions/Q&A
    • 3:30 p.m. - End Announcements

WORKSHOP:

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

(Online access to event opens at 8:30 am)

  • 9:00-10:15 a.m. Morning Meeting (9:00 am to 10:15 am)
    • 9:00-9:15 a.m. Welcome - Scott Curtin
    • 9:15-9:30 a.m. Overview of the CE Survey - Adam Safir
    • 9:30-9:45 a.m. Introduction to Microdata - Bryan Rigg
    • 9:45-10:00 a.m. Microdata File Structure - Scott Curtin
    • 10:00-10:15 a.m. Q &A

  • 10:15-10:30 a.m. Morning Break

  • 10:30-12:00 p.m. Self-directed Practical Training Session I - CE Microdata Staff
    • 10:30-11:00 a.m. Overview and Concepts: Projects 1, 2 & 3 (CE staff)
    • 11:00-12:00 p.m. Projects 1, 2, & 3 (Self-directed) - CE Staff available via chat

  • 12:00-1:00 p.m. Lunch Break (Staff availability may be limited)

  • 1:00-2:00 p.m. Research Presentation Session I (1:00 pm to 2:00 pm)
    • 1:00-1:20 p.m. Lifetime Income & Costs of the LI50+ - Aaron Williams, Data Scientist, Income and Benefits Policy Center
    • 1:20-1:40 p.m. Costs Beyond Tuition: Estimating older college students' basic needs with Consumer Expenditure Survey (PUMD) - Casey Goldvale, Policy Analyst, and Vincent Palacios, Senior Policy Analyst, Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality
    • 1:40-2:00 p.m. Discussion/Q&A

  • 2:00-2:15 p.m. Announcements/Afternoon Break

  • 2:15-4:30p.m. Self-directed Practical Training Session II - CE Microdata Staff
    • 2:15-2:45 p.m. Overview and Concepts: Projects 4 & 5 (CE Staff)
    • 2:45-4:30 p.m. Project 4 & 5 (Self-directed) - CE Staff available via chat

Thursday, July 23, 2020

(Online access to event opens at 8:30 am)

  • 9:00-10:15 a.m. Morning Meeting (9:00 am to 10:15 am)
    • 9:00-9:15 a.m. Balancing Respondent Confidentiality and Data User Needs - Aaron Cobet
    • 9:15-9:30 a.m. State Weights: Providing More Geographic Data - Jimmy Choi
    • 9:30-10:00 a.m. Variance Estimation - The BRR Method - Geoffrey Paulin, Ph.D.
    • 10:00-10:15 a.m. Q&A

  • 10:15-10:30 a.m. Morning Break

  • 10:30-12:00 p.m. Self-directed Practical Training Session III - CE Microdata Staff
    • 10:30-11:00 a.m. Overview and Concepts: Projects 6 & 7 (CE Staff)
    • 11:00-12:00 p.m. Projects 6 & 7 (Self-directed) - CE Staff available via chat

  • 12:00-1:00 p.m. Lunch Break (Staff availability may be limited)

  • 1:00-2:00 p.m. Research Presentation Session II
    • 1:00-1:20 p.m. How Expensive Is the Battle of Tiger Mothers? Understanding Race and Class behind the Educational Expenditure of Asian Americans - Ziyao Tian, Ph.D. Candidate (Sociology), Princeton University.
    • 1:20-1:40 p.m. Gender Economics, Race, and Intersectionality: Using CE Microdata to determine inequalities among adult women and men in the U.S. by race and ethnicity, 2016 through 2018 combined - Reginald Noel, Research Economist Data Scientist and Whitney Hewitt Noel, Public Health Researcher/Health Equity Advocate, Noel Collective
    • 1:40-2:00 p.m. Discussion / Q&A

  • 2:00-2:15 p.m. Announcements/Afternoon Break

  • 2:15-4:30 p.m. Self-directed Practical Training Session IV - CE Microdata Staff
    • 2:15-2:45 p.m. Introduction to imputed income data - Geoffrey Paulin, Ph.D.
    • 2:45-4:30 p.m. Project 8 & 9 (Self-directed) - CE Staff available via chat

Friday, July 24, 2020

(Online access to event opens at 8:30 am)

  • 9:00-10:15 a.m. Morning Meeting (Research Presentation Session III)
    • 9:00-9:20 a.m. Predicting consumer expenditure based on the variables available in the Consumer Expectation Survey of the NY Fed - Constantin Burgi, Ph.D., Professor, St. Mary's College of Maryland
    • 9:20-9:40 a.m. Consumer Demand Estimation for Heterogeneous U.S. Households - Ensieh Shojaeddini ORISE fellow at US EPA
    • 9:40-10:00 a.m. Household Transportation Spending Trends from 2010 to 2020 - Early Indications of the impact of cultural shifts and pandemic related household activity on transportation spending patterns - Jonathan Peters, Ph.D., Professor of Finance and Data Analytics, The City University of New York, David A. King, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe Arizona, and Cameron E. Gordon, Ph.D., The Australian University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
    • 10:00-10:15 a.m. Q&A

  • 10:15-10:30 a.m. Morning Break

  • 10:30-10:45 a.m. Investigating the Imputation of Assets and Liabilities in the CE Interview Survey- Geoffrey Paulin, Ph.D.

  • 10:45-11:00 a.m. Sneak Peek CE Now and Into the Future - Brett Creech

  • 11:00-11:30a.m. Attendee Feedback Session - David Biagas, Office of Survey Methods Research, BLS

  • 11:30-4:30 p.m. Concluding Activities
    • Closing announcements
    • Self-directed practical training
    • Meet with an expert (as scheduled)
    • Lunch and other breaks (at attendee's convenience)


Self-directed Practical Training Sessions (Tentative Schedule):

The practical training projects at this workshop will be covered sequentially. Depending on the progress of each session, topics may start in one session and be carried over to later sessions. Tentatively, the topics to be covered each day are as follows:

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

  • Project 1: Generating annualized sample means by family type using the Interview FMLI files.
    - Introduction to summary income variables
    - Develop a baseline understanding of the sample data
    - Using data only from participants in all four interviews compared to treating quarters independently

  • Project 2: Generating annualized sample means by number of children in the CU using the Interview FMLI and MEMI files.
  • - Explore how we can use data from multiple sources to determine interesting cross tabs

  • Project 3: Generating annualized sample means for tuition, test, book, and other education expenditures by number of children in the CU using the Interview FMLI, MEMI, and MTBI files.
  • - Introduction to stub files
    - Introduction to expenditure summary variables (PQ/CQ)

  • Project 4: Generating annualized sample means for a specific Diary survey item to be integrated with Interview survey data, creating a total education expenditure.
  • - Review of source selection

  • Project 5: Generating statistics for non-expenditure characteristics (school type) of education using the Interview survey EDA and FMLI files.
  • - Using the EDA file to find more specific information about whether the expense was for someone inside or outside the CU

Thursday, July 23, 2020

  • Project 6: Generating a weighted average annual collection year education expenditure and standard error by the number of children in a CU, using the Interview survey files.
    - Using the weights
    - Comparisons of population versus sample means

  • Project 7: Generating a weighted calendar year education expenditures by the number of children in a CU using the Interview survey files.
  • - MO_SCOPE: How to adjust the weights to represent the "months in scope" of the interview

  • Project 8: User's Guide to Income Imputation in the CE (Part 1) Calculating valid descriptive statistics for multiply imputed income:
  • - Mean
    - Standard error

  • Project 9: User's Guide to Income Imputation in the CE (Part 2) Regression analysis to find the relationship between food-at-home expenditures and income:
  • - Compute the parameter estimates and their standard errors for the intercept and income in a simple linear regression.

CE Microdata Users' Workshop Staff

The following CE staff members will lead or facilitate exercises during at least one practical training session. Several will be available at each session to assist you with your projects.

  • Grayson Armstrong
  • Lekhnath Chalise
  • Jimmy Choi
  • Frank Cirillo
  • Aaron Cobet
  • Brett Creech
  • Scott Curtin
  • Tom Johnson
  • Geoffrey Paulin
  • Bryan Rigg

Questions?

For general questions on symposium and workshop, please contact CE_Symposium_Workshop@bls.gov

For any questions during the workshop, please contact CE_Workshop_Help@bls.gov

 

Last Modified Date: July 13, 2020