West bank and Gaza strip

Title: Household Expenditure and Consumption Survey 2001

GENERAL INFORMATION AND BASIC DEFINITIONS

1. Background

Further information is available from Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics of P.O.Box 1647 Ramallah Palestine, phone: 972 2 240 63 40, fax: 972 2 240 63 43, e-mail: diwan@pcbs.pna.org.
Data have been collected by household survey since 1996.

2. Purpose and coverage

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

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

Geographic coverage: National without any specific geographic areas excluded.

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

• one person private households
• private households with more than one person
• households of other foreigners in the country

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

• those in collective housing (such as long term hospitals, prisons, monasteries, military quarters)
• non-resident households of nationals (households of nationals located abroad)
• diplomatic households in the country
• nomadic and other households difficult to reach: nomadic

Units:
Dwelling units are used in the sample selection and are characterised by:

• single structure - detached housing unit
• single unit in a structure containing more than one housing unit
• multiple structures within a compound (e.g. huts)

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 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 included, if staying continuously for more than 15 days.

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
• responsible for financial maintenance of household/unit
• main income earner
• responsible for decisions on main expenditures
• oldest person

3. Reference periods

The time period to which income and/or expenditure statistics refer when released/published is from 03/01 to 03/02. These data are collected in the period from 03/01 to 03/02. This survey is conducted irregularly/occasionally.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

4. Sample design

The Primary, Secondary and Ultimate Sampling Units are enumeration area/district, none and household respectively.

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

• rural/urban
• administrative districts

The sampling frames for the Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) and Ultimate Sampling Unit (USU) were the list of Census enumeration areas and the master sample of households respectively.¹ The sample size was 3500 households or other units. ² The overall response rate for the survey was 96 percent.

Enumeration procedure: Enumeration uses a single round survey design in which each reporting unit is enumerated only once.

For more details about the survey, please visit http://www.pcbs.org/selectedstatistics.

DATA COLLECTION, CONCEPTS, DEFINITIONS AND CLASSIFICATIONS

5. Income data

Income data are collected. Receipts do not have to be regular and recurring to be considered as income. Income excludes receipts resulting from the sale or reduction of assets and/or from incurring liabilities. Income excludes receipts that are not currently available to the unit.

Income data were collected separately for each person receiving income. Components of income for an individual were collected from one person who reported for all individuals. Negative values (business losses) were excluded when computing self-employment income.

6. Expenditure data

Data collection method:
Diaries are used to collect expenditure data and are maintained for one month.

Diaries are used to collect expenditure on the following items:

• food
• alcohol, tobacco
• other household non-durables (such as newspapers, batteries)
• clothing, footwear
• other personal non-durables (such as perfumes)
• household services (such as plumber)
• personal services (such as driving lessons, haircuts)

Interviews are used to collect expenditure data with the respondent completing the interview using documentation only.

Data for the following expenditure items are collected by referring:

• to expenditures in last one month:
  • food
  • other household non-durable goods
  • clothing, footwear
  • other personal non-durable goods
  • housing
  • households services
  • personal services

• to expenditures in last 12 months:
  • other durable goods

Classification: A national classification is used for classifying expenditure and has 29 separate categories at the finest level. The classification is consistent with COICOP at the Group (3 digit) 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
• ownership of selected durable goods
• housing characteristics
• savings

Households are not 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
• quality control

DATA PROCESSING, ANALYSIS AND DISSEMINATION

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

The responses are edited by the following:

• interviewers, data collectors
• field supervisors
• office staff

Extreme values are retained without change. ³ In-kind receipts and consumption of own production are included in the estimates. In-kind receipts are valued using:⁴ the respondent's estimate. Consumption of own production is valued using:⁴ the respondent's estimate.

Treatment of owner-occupied housing: Values of owner-occupied housing are included in the total income/expenditure estimates and are valued using the current market value.

The following information is used in this valuation:

Treatment of selected groups/values in analysis: Some households/units are excluded from analysis because of incomplete response. Missing values are retained without change . No groups are excluded from data analysis.

Weighting:
Weighting factors are used to adjust for:

• sampling
• non-response

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 and for individuals separately.

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

• age of reference person or head of household
• sex of reference person or head of household
• occupation of reference person or head of household
• other characteristic of reference person or head of household
• income percentiles
• principal source of household income
• expenditure percentiles
• expenditure classes in monetary terms
• household size

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

• age of reference person or head of household
• sex of reference person or head of household
• occupation of reference person or head of household
• other characteristic of reference person or head of household
• income percentiles
• principal source of household income
• expenditure percentiles
• expenditure classes in monetary terms
• household size
• other characteristic of household
• other classification

Documentation and Dissemination:

Additional statistics (or special tables on request) are available for public use, with charges (depends on the type of request, the classification and data accuracy). Separate tables are published for households with wages/salaries as main source of income. Files of unidentifiable unit data are available (or available on request) for public use, with charges.