Norway

Title: Survey of Consumer Expenditure 1997/1999

GENERAL INFORMATION AND BASIC DEFINITIONS

1. Background

Further information is available from Statistics Norway of P.O.B 8131 Dep.N.-0033 Oslo Norway, phone: 47 21 09 46 93, fax: 47 21 09 44 04, e-mail: eiliv.mork@ssb.no.
Data have been collected by household survey since 1958.

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
• to study effects on income and expenditure of policy changes, especially tax changes

Lesser importance is attached to:

• for general poverty and/or income distribution studies
• for market research purposes

Geographic coverage: National with the following geographic areas excluded: region of Spitsbergen .

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
• 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:

• 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

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 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 not included in the unit.

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

• main income earner

3. Reference periods

The time period to which income and/or expenditure statistics refer when released/published is from 01/97 to 12/99. These data are collected in the period from 12/96 to 02/00. This survey is conducted continuously. The statistics are published annually.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

4. Sample design

The Primary, Secondary and Ultimate Sampling Units are enumeration area/district, household and household respectively.

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

• geographical regions
• rural/urban
• administrative districts

The sampling frames for the Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) and Ultimate Sampling Unit (USU) were a set of administrative registers (or combination of such registers) and a set of administrative registers (or combination of such registers) respectively. The sample size was 2200 households or other units. The overall response rate for the survey was 55.5 percent. Errors/biases were minimized by using an updated sampling frame, weighting for non-response.

Enumeration procedure: ¹ Enumeration uses a panel design in which each reporting unit is enumerated more than once. The sample is not divided into representative sub-samples. The panel has an expected lifetime of 2 years, and each reporting household/unit is enumerated 2 times in total. If a reporting household/unit drops out from the panel, it is abandonned. If changes occur in composition of the reporting household/unit during the lifetime of the panel, then it continues in the panel. 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 used to collect expenditure data and are maintained for two weeks.

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 12 months:
  • clothing, footwear
  • housing
  • other durable goods
  • households services

Data for the following expenditure items are not collected by interview because they are collected by diary:

• food
• other household non-durable goods
• other personal non-durable goods
• personal services

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

• non-durable goods purchased
• durable goods purchased (except housing)
• services of owner-occupied housing
• income in-kind receipts of goods
• income in-kind receipts of services
• own produced non-durable goods
• own-produced durable goods
• in-kind goods received from other households
• in-kind services received from other households
• financial services (including fees for financial advice, brokerage fees)
• non-life insurance premiums (e.g. vehicle, housing, other property, medical) , gross of claims
• life insurance premiums , gross of claims
• gambling expenditure , gross of winnings
• out of pocket health expenditure , net of claims
• out of pocket education expenditures , net of refunds
• out of pocket transport expenditures , net of refunds
• housing maintenance, minor repairs
• second hand goods purchased
• expenditure abroad
• occupational expenditures

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

• 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)
• licences and fees (e.g. driver's licence, hunting licence, vehicle registration)
• regular cash payments to others outside the household
• non-regular cash payments to others outside the household
• purchase of gifts of goods and services given to others outside the household
• compulsory transfers to governments (e.g. contributions to government old age and disability insurance program, taxes)

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

• other business-related expenditures

The following types of expenditure items are classified as 'Investment/liability expenditure':

• purchase price of owner-occupied housing
• mortgage repayments, including interest
• major repairs, conversions and extensions to owner-occupied housing
• investment-related expenditures (e.g. purchase of shares/stocks)

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

• own-produced services

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

• non-durable goods purchased
• durable goods purchased (except housing)
• purchase price of owner-occupied housing
• mortgage repayments, including interest
• major repairs, conversions and extensions to owner-occupied housing
• income in-kind receipts of goods
• income in-kind receipts of services
• own produced non-durable goods
• own-produced durable goods
• own-produced services
• services from durables owned (except housing)
• in-kind goods received from other households
• in-kind services received from other households
• 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)
• non-life insurance premiums (e.g. vehicle, housing, other property, medical) , gross of claims
• life insurance premiums , gross of claims
• licences and fees (e.g. driver's licence, hunting licence, vehicle registration)
• gambling expenditure , gross of winnings
• out of pocket health expenditure , net of claims
• out of pocket education expenditures , net of refunds
• out of pocket transport expenditures , net of refunds
• housing maintenance, minor repairs
• purchase of gifts of goods and services given to others outside the household
• second hand goods purchased
• expenditure abroad
• compulsory transfers to governments (e.g. contributions to government old age and disability insurance program, taxes)
• investment-related expenditures (e.g. purchase of shares/stocks)
• occupational expenditures
• other business-related expenditures

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

• services of owner-occupied housing

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

• regular cash payments to others outside the household
• non-regular cash payments to others outside the household

Classification: A national classification is used for classifying expenditure and has 755 separate categories at the finest level. The classification is consistent with COICOP at the Class (4 digit) level.

7. Other Data Collection Issues

The following other topics are covered:

• demographic characteristics
• employment status of members
• occupation of members
• ownership of selected durable goods
• housing characteristics

Households are not requested to indicate whether durable goods are new or second-hand when their acquisition is recorded.

Non-response: There is no substitution for non-response, whether by non-contact or by refusal.

Non-response is reduced using the following measures:

• more than one repeat visits
• monetary rewards

Reporting errors are reduced using the following measures:

• careful instrument design
• bounding interview
• quality control

DATA PROCESSING, ANALYSIS AND DISSEMINATION

Answers are not pre-coded on data collection forms, but are coded by office staff.

Extreme values are amended. In-kind receipts and consumption of own production are included in the estimates. In-kind receipts are valued using: the respondent's estimate. Consumption of own production is valued using: the imputed in office processing using market prices.

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 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
• non-response

Sampling errors: Sampling errors are computed for major aggregates and these sampling errors are published.

Tabulation and Analysis: The reference period for aggregation and reporting is three years aggregated 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
• income percentiles, quintiles
• expenditure percentiles
• household size
• structure of household
• other classification, regions and area of residence

Documentation and Dissemination:
Published survey reports: survey of Consumer Expenditure 1997/1999, may 2002
Published methodological information: survey of Consumer Expenditure 1999/2001, december 2002

Additional statistics (or special tables on request) are available for public use, with charges (special tables can be produced on request). 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, free of charge (for scientific purposes only).