The United States continuing Consumer Expenditure (CE) Interview Survey began in 1980. This survey provided a rich source of detailed data on household income, employment, demographic composition, and asset positions, in addition to detailed data on many categories of expenditures. However, the form in which the CE data was released to the public made it very difficult to use these data, especially the household-level expenditure data. The purpose of this project is first, to consolidate the data in such a way that the household survey can be more easily accessed, without losing any substantial detail. The second task is to create a summary version of the data, sacrificing some detail for the purpose of creating an easily manipulatable database with annual expenditures on consumer goods. The first two tasks will have substantial benefit to other researchers by making the resulting data sets widely available and, thus, avoiding unnecessary replication of tedious and complex data- matching and manipulation. The third task will use the two data sets for research in the areas of household and intra-household consumption patterns, household economies of scale, and household equivalence scales. The consolidation of the data sets will be of considerable use to a broad range of social scientists.
