Sally Reyes-Morales is a mathematical statistician in the Division of Price Statistical Methods, Branch of Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Diary surveys are often used to collect information on daily activities such as consumer spending. They are particularly useful for collecting daily records of small frequently purchased items, which are normally difficult to recall...

CONTEXT Although estimates of the amount and proportion of alcohol consumed by underage and adult drinkers have been reported, more accurate estimates are possible and the economic impact has not been explored. OBJECTIVES To provide accurate estimates of underage and adult excessive drinking and to describe consumer expenditures linked to underage and adult excessive drinking. DESIGN AND SE...

Out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure on health care has significant implications for poverty in many developing countries. This paper aims to assess the differential impact of OOP expenditure and its components, such as expenditure on inpatient care, outpatient care and on drugs, across different income quintiles, between developed and less developed regions in India. It also attempts to measure pov...

Motor vehicles play a central role in the modern American lifestyle. The vast majority of workers travel to work by private vehicle. Motor vehicles are one of the most widely owned assets, with more than 85 percent of U.S. households owning one or more vehicles in 1992. Costs related to vehicles—vehicle purchases, operating expenses and repairs, and insurance—account for a sizable part of the t...

In this paper three hypotheses concerning the cyclicality of U.S. consumers’ expenditure are proposed. These hypotheses are based upon the distinction between expenditure on durable and non-durable goods. It is argued that durability will lead to increased cyclical sensitivity and that this increased cyclicality will be of an asymmetric nature. The asymmetric adjustment will be of the form of d...

In recent years, medical and health care consumption has risen, making health risk an important determinant of household spending and welfare. We aimed to examine the determinants of medical and health care expenditure to help policy-makers in the improvement of China's health care system, benefiting the country, society and every household. This paper employs panel data from China's provinces ...

Mark Vendemia is an economist with the Branch of Information and Analysis, Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Introduction The Nation’s minority population is rapidly growing, with approximately 1 in 3 U.S. residents a member of a minority group1 in 2007. Hispanics account for almost half the recent population growth and are now the largest minority group...

Multi-store ...rms are common in the retailing industry. Theory suggests that cross-elasticities between stores of the same ...rm enhance market power. To evaluate the importance of this e¤ect in the UK supermarket industry, we estimate a model of consumer choice and expenditure using three data sources: pro...t margins for each chain, a survey of consumer choices, and a data set of store chara...