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Measuring consumer expenditures with payment diaries

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  • Scott Schuh

Abstract

As the 2012 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (DCPC) illustrates, there are advantages to measuring consumer expenditures by tracking the authorization of payments by instrument type (cash, check, debit or credit card, etc.). The main advantages of payment diaries appear to be the following: 1) the ability to measure expenditures by payment instrument aggregated into lumpy purchases (?shopping baskets?), 2) relatively low respondent burden, and 3) effective random sampling. Three notable results emerge from comparing the 2012 DCPC estimates with estimates from other reputable estimates of the current value of consumer expenditures: 1) DCPC payments estimates are 75 percent higher than Consumer Expenditure Survey estimates; 2) DCPC consumption estimates are 17 percent higher than personal consumption expenditures estimates in comparable expenditure categories (about half of the categories are comparable); and 3) DCPC payments roughly equal comparably adjusted national income and product accounts disposable income.

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  • Scott Schuh, 2017. "Measuring consumer expenditures with payment diaries," Working Papers 17-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbwp:17-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Claire Greene & Joanna Stavins, 2020. "2018 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice," Consumer Payments Research Data Reports 2019-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    2. Bokana K.G & Kabongo W.N.S, 2018. "Modelling Real Private Consumption Expenditure in South Africa to Test the Absolute Income Hypothesis," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 10(5), pages 138-155.
    3. Roy Verbaan & Wilko Bolt & Carin van der Cruijsen, 2017. "Using debit card payments data for nowcasting Dutch household consumption," DNB Working Papers 571, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    4. Krislert Samphantharak & Scott Schuh & Robert M. Townsend, 2018. "Integrated Household Surveys: An Assessment Of U.S. Methods And An Innovation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 50-80, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    payments; consumer expenditures; consumption; income; diary survey;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

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