India

Title: Socio-Economic Survey: Household Consumer Expenditure

GENERAL INFORMATION AND BASIC DEFINITIONS

1. Background

Further information is available from National Sample Survey Organisation-Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of Sardar Patel Bhawan, Parliament Street, New Delhi, phone: 91 11 2374 2026, fax: 91 11 2374 2026, e-mail: ddgsdrd@cal2.vsnl.net.in.
Data have been collected by household survey since 1950.

2. Purpose and coverage

The following purposes are considered to be very important or of some importance:

• to study the general structure of household incomes/expenditures
• to study income/expenditure patterns of disadvantaged groups, including pensioner households, single parent households, etc
• to study income/expenditure disparities among socio-economic groups
• to study consumer behaviour among socio-economic groups
• for general poverty and/or income distribution studies

Lesser importance is attached to:

• to obtain weights for consumer price index
• to estimate household expenditure for national accounts
• to study effects on income and expenditure of policy changes, especially tax changes
• for market research purposes

Geographic coverage: National with the following geographic areas excluded: remote or inaccessible areas .

Population coverage:
The following types of household are included in the data collection:

• one person private households
• private households with more than one person
• those in collective housing (such as long term hospitals, prisons, monasteries, military quarters)
• armed forces residing in private housing within military base
• armed forces residing in private housing outside military base

The following types of household are excluded in the data collection:

• non-resident households of nationals (households of nationals located abroad)
• diplomatic households in the country
• households of other foreigners in the country

Units: Dwelling units are not used in the sample selection.

Data are recorded for the household unit which is characterised by:

• one person units
• two or more people living together:
  • sharing a single dwelling or compound
  • sharing meals
  • sharing a common budget for (at least) food and housing expenditures
  • pooling their income to some extent

Data are recorded for the consumer unit, expenditure unit or spending unit which is characterised by:

• two or more people:
  • living in the same household
  • sharing a single dwelling or compound
  • sharing meals
  • sharing a common budget for (at least) food and housing expenditures

Unit members: Usual residents temporarily living away from the dwelling are included, if away continuously for less than 6 months. Visitors (not usual residents) temporarily living in the dwelling are not included as unit members. Domestic staff living in same dwelling/compound are included in the unit. Renters living in same dwelling/compound are not included in the unit. Boarders living in same dwelling/compound are included in the unit.

Head of unit:
The concept of head of household/other unit is used in this survey and is characterised by:

• acknowledged as such by other household/unit members

3. Reference periods

The time period to which income and/or expenditure statistics refer when released/published is from 07/99 to 06/00. These data are collected in the period from 07/99 to 06/00. This survey is conducted annually. The statistics are published annually. ¹

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

4. Sample design

The Primary, Secondary and Ultimate Sampling Units are census villages, sub blocks & Hamlet groups and household respectively.

Stratification:
Areas/districts were stratified using the following criteria:

• geographical regions
• rural/urban
• administrative districts

Households/Consumption Unit, Income Unit, Family Unit were stratified using the following criteria:

• expenditure class

Other units were stratified using the following criteria: means of livelihood (occupation type), Land possessed. The sampling frames for the Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) and Ultimate Sampling Unit (USU) were a list of administrative districts and a separate listing exercise respectively. The sample size was 120309 households or other units. The overall response rate for the survey was 98 percent. Errors/biases were minimized by using an updated sampling frame, an increased sample size.

Enumeration procedure: Enumeration uses a single round survey design in which each reporting unit is enumerated only once. The sample is divided into 8 representative sub-samples. No action is taken to select a smaller set of reporting units for more detailed questioning.

DATA COLLECTION, CONCEPTS, DEFINITIONS AND CLASSIFICATIONS

5. Income data

Income data are not collected from this source.

6. Expenditure data

Data collection method:

Diaries are not used to collect expenditure data.

Interviews are used to collect expenditure data with the respondent completing the interview by recall only.

Data for the following expenditure items are collected by referring:^2,3

• to expenditures last week:
  • food

• to expenditures in last one month:
  • other household non-durable goods
  • households services
  • personal services

• to expenditures in last 12 months:
  • clothing, footwear
  • other personal non-durable goods
  • housing
  • other durable goods
  • other items

Classification: A national classification that is not consistent with COICOP is used for classifying expenditure and has 337 separate categories at the finest level.

7. Other Data Collection Issues

The following other topics are covered:

• demographic characteristics
• education attainment of members
• employment status of members
• occupation of members
• housing characteristics

Households are requested to indicate whether durable goods are new or second-hand when their acquisition is recorded.

Non-response: Non-response households (refusals and non-contacts) are substituted.

Reporting errors are reduced using the following measures:

• careful instrument design
• bounding interview

DATA PROCESSING, ANALYSIS AND DISSEMINATION

Answers are pre-coded on data collection forms to the extent possible.

The responses are edited by the following:

• field supervisors
• office staff

Extreme values are retained without change. In-kind receipts and consumption of own production are included in the estimates. In-kind receipts are valued using: the imputed by field staff using market prices. Consumption of own production is valued using: imputed at ex-farm prices

Treatment of owner-occupied housing: Values of owner-occupied housing are not included in the total income/expenditure estimates.

Treatment of selected groups/values in analysis: Some households/units are excluded from analysis because of incomplete response. Missing values are imputed always . Supplementary sources are not used to adjust estimates for under- or over-reporting. No groups are excluded from data analysis.

Weighting:
Weighting factors are used to adjust for:

• sampling

Sampling errors: Sampling errors are computed for major aggregates and these sampling errors are available on request.

Tabulation and Analysis: Statistics are presented showing averages per month and statistics are analysed and tabulated for households only.

The following classifications are used for tabulation and analysis of income statistics:

• principal source of household income

The following classifications are used for tabulation and analysis of expenditure statistics:

• expenditure percentiles
• expenditure classes in monetary terms
• household size
• structure of household

Documentation and Dissemination:
Published survey reports: NSS Reports: 453, 454, 457, 461, 464, 466, 467, 471, 472, 473, 474
Published methodological information:⁴ NSS Report No. 475, September, 2002

Additional statistics (or special tables on request) are available for public use, with charges.

Separate tables are published for the following special population groups:⁵

• households with wages/salaries as main source of income