June 9, 2011

National Academy of Sciences Awards Abt SRBI and Partners Contract to Redesign Widely Used Economic Indicator Survey

The National Academy of Sciences just awarded researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Abt SRBI a contract to develop redesign options for the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) – one of the most important and policy-impactful surveys that the government conducts.

The CES, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is the most widely used indicator of consumer spending patterns. It also provides the market basket weights for the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the leading gauge of inflation. Government leaders, business executives, labor leaders and other private citizens use the index as a guide in making economic decisions.

The CES is also used to adjust income payments tied to inflation. The index affects the income of almost 80 million people: 47.8 million Social Security beneficiaries, about 4.1 million military and Federal Civil Service retirees and survivors, and about 22.4 million food stamp recipients. Over 2 million workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements which tie wages to the CPI. Changes in the CPI also affect the cost of lunches for the 26.7 million children who eat lunch at school. Some private firms and individuals use the CPI to keep rents, royalties, alimony payments and child support payments in line with changing prices. . Since 1985, the CPI has also been used to adjust the Federal income tax structure to prevent inflation-induced increases.

The methodological team is led by Nancy Mathiowetz, Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Kristen Olson, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Courtney Kennedy, Vice President of the Abt SRBI Advanced Methods Group. Over the next six months, they will be investigating solutions to the methodological challenges in the CES and organizing a report laying out a plan for re-designing the study. Their report will address such topics as measurement error, changes in the survey environment due to both new technology and consumer behaviors, and the need for greater flexibility in the mode of data collection.

"The CES is probably the most influential policy survey the government conducts,” said Mark Schulman, CEO of Abt SRBI, the survey arm of Abt Associates. “Our role in this rigorous evaluation and complex redesign effort is testimony to our growing thought leadership in survey design."

Abt SRBI, a leading public policy and market research organization, is the survey research arm of Abt Associates, the international public policy and technical assistance firm. Abt SRBI is headquartered in New York City, with offices in the Washington, D.C. area, Chicago, IL, Cambridge, MA, Fort Myers, FL, Durham, NC and other cities.