Andorra

Title: Enquesta de Pressupostos Familiars (EPF) 2001-2003

GENERAL INFORMATION AND BASIC DEFINITIONS

1. Background

Further information is available from Servei d'Estudis - Ministeri de Finances - Govern d'Andorra of c/Dr. Vilanova, 13 Edif. Davi Escala C 5è - Andorra la Vella - Principat d'Andorra, phone: + 376 86 53 45, fax: + 376 86 78 98, e-mail: meservest@andorra.ad.
Data have been collected by household survey since 2001.

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
• for general poverty and/or income distribution studies

Lesser importance is attached to:

• 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
• 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
• diplomatic households in the country
• 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)
• armed forces residing in private housing within military base
• armed forces residing in private housing outside military base

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

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

• one person units
• two or more people living together:
  • sharing a common budget for (at least) food and housing expenditures

Unit members: 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:

• recognized owner, or responsible for tenancy of dwelling
• responsible for financial maintenance of household/unit
• main income earner
• responsible for decisions on main expenditures

3. Reference periods

The time period to which income and/or expenditure statistics refer when released/published is from 03/03 to 02/04. This survey is conducted continuously. The statistics are published annually.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

4. Sample design

The Primary, Secondary and Ultimate Sampling Units are household, household and household respectively.

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

• parish

Other units were stratified using the following criteria: Geographical loccality of household (parish). The sampling frames for the Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) and Ultimate Sampling Unit (USU) were a register of addresses and none respectively. The sample size was 1200 households or other units. Errors/biases were minimized by using post stratification.

Enumeration procedure: Enumeration uses a single round survey design in which each reporting unit is enumerated only once. The sample is not divided into representative sub-samples. No action is taken to select a smaller set of reporting units for more detailed questioning.

First visit: to introduce the survey; to collect information concerning the household members, theirs caracteristics; the household caracteristics and to provide completed questionnaires on weekly expenditure. Second visit: to collect questi onnaires in relation to the expenditure..

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 used to collect expenditure data and are maintained for one week.

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 by a mix of recall and using documentation.

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
  • personal services

• to expenditures in last 3 months:
  • housing
  • other durable goods
  • households services

The following types of expenditure items are classified as 'Household consumption expenditure':

• non-durable goods purchased
• durable goods purchased (except housing)
• out of pocket health expenditure
• out of pocket education expenditures
• out of pocket transport expenditures
• housing maintenance, minor repairs

The following types of expenditure items are classified as 'Actual Household consumption':

• income in-kind receipts of goods
• in-kind goods received from other households
• in-kind services received from other households
• regular cash payments to others outside the household
• expenditure abroad

The following types of expenditure items are classified as 'Non-consumption household expenditure':

• non-life insurance premiums (e.g. vehicle, housing, other property, medical)
• life insurance premiums
• licences and fees (e.g. driver's licence, hunting licence, vehicle registration)
• compulsory transfers to governments (e.g. contributions to government old age and disability insurance program, taxes)

The following types of expenditure items are excluded due to measurement problems:

• purchase price of owner-occupied housing
• mortgage repayments, including interest
• services of owner-occupied housing
• major repairs, conversions and extensions to owner-occupied housing
• income in-kind receipts of services
• own produced non-durable goods
• own-produced durable goods
• own-produced services
• services from durables owned (except housing)
• social transfers in-kind of goods and services from government and non-profit institutions serving households
• interest payments (excluding mortgage interest payments)
• financial services (including fees for financial advice, brokerage fees)
• gambling expenditure
• non-regular cash payments to others outside the household
• purchase of gifts of goods and services given to others outside the household
• second hand goods purchased
• valuables
• investment-related expenditures (e.g. purchase of shares/stocks)
• occupational expenditures
• other business-related expenditures

The following types of expenditure items are collected on an 'acquisitions' basis:

• non-durable goods purchased
• durable goods purchased (except housing)
• out of pocket health expenditure
• out of pocket education expenditures
• out of pocket transport expenditures
• housing maintenance, minor repairs
• expenditure abroad

The following types of expenditure items are collected on a 'use' basis:

• income in-kind receipts of goods
• in-kind goods received from other households
• in-kind services received from other households

The following types of expenditure items are collected on a 'payments' basis:

• non-life insurance premiums (e.g. vehicle, housing, other property, medical)
• life insurance premiums
• licences and fees (e.g. driver's licence, hunting licence, vehicle registration)
• regular cash payments to others outside the household
• compulsory transfers to governments (e.g. contributions to government old age and disability insurance program, taxes)

Classification: COICOP is used for classifying expenditure and has 269 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
• indebtedness

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

Non-response: Non-contacted households are substituted, but not refusal households.

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
• office staff

Extreme values are deleted. Neither in-kind receipts nor consumption of own production is included in the estimates.

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

Treatment of selected groups/values in analysis: No households/units are excluded from analysis because of incomplete response. Missing values are retained without change . 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 all aggregates and these sampling errors are published.

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

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
• expenditure classes in monetary terms
• household size
• structure of household
• other characteristic of household

Documentation and Dissemination:
Published survey reports: Enquesta de pressupostos familiars 2001-2003, Février 2005
Published methodological information: Enquesta de pressupostos familiars 2001-2003, Février 2005

Additional statistics (or special tables on request) are not available for public use. Separate tables are published for households with wages/salaries as main source of income. Files of unidentifiable unit data are not available (or available on request) for public use.