IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedbwp/17-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring consumer expenditures with payment diaries

Author

Listed:
  • Scott Schuh

Abstract

As the 2012 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (DCPC) illustrates, there are advantages to measuring consumer expenditures by tracking the authorization of payments by instrument type (cash, check, debit or credit card, etc.). The main advantages of payment diaries appear to be the following: 1) the ability to measure expenditures by payment instrument aggregated into lumpy purchases (?shopping baskets?), 2) relatively low respondent burden, and 3) effective random sampling. Three notable results emerge from comparing the 2012 DCPC estimates with estimates from other reputable estimates of the current value of consumer expenditures: 1) DCPC payments estimates are 75 percent higher than Consumer Expenditure Survey estimates; 2) DCPC consumption estimates are 17 percent higher than personal consumption expenditures estimates in comparable expenditure categories (about half of the categories are comparable); and 3) DCPC payments roughly equal comparably adjusted national income and product accounts disposable income.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Schuh, 2017. "Measuring consumer expenditures with payment diaries," Working Papers 17-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbwp:17-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/research-department-working-paper/2017/measuring-consumer-expenditures-with-payment-diaries.aspx
    File Function: Summary
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.bostonfed.org/-/media/Documents/Workingpapers/PDF/2017/wp1702.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William Passero & Thesia I. Garner & Clinton McCully, 2014. "Understanding the Relationship: CE Survey and PCE," NBER Chapters, in: Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures, pages 181-203, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Klee, Elizabeth, 2008. "How people pay: Evidence from grocery store data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 526-541, April.
    3. John Bagnall & David Bounie & Kim P. Huynh & Anneke Kosse & Tobias Schmidt & Scott Schuh, 2016. "Consumer Cash Usage: A Cross-Country Comparison with Payment Diary Survey Data," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 12(4), pages 1-61, December.
    4. Marcin Hitczenko, 2015. "Identifying and evaluating sample selection bias in consumer payment surveys," Research Data Report 15-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    5. Melvin Stephens Jr., 2003. ""3rd of tha Month": Do Social Security Recipients Smooth Consumption Between Checks?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 406-422, March.
    6. Michael D. Hurd & Susann Rohwedder, 2010. "Effects of the Financial Crisis and Great Recession on American Households," NBER Working Papers 16407, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Sergei Koulayev & Marc Rysman & Scott Schuh & Joanna Stavins, 2016. "Explaining adoption and use of payment instruments by US consumers," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(2), pages 293-325, May.
    8. Geoffrey R. Gerdes & Jack K. Walton, 2002. "The use of checks and other noncash payment instruments in the United States," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), vol. 88(Aug), pages 360-374, August.
    9. Sumit Agarwal & Souphala Chomsisengphet & Neale Mahoney & Johannes Stroebel, 2015. "Regulating Consumer Financial Products: Evidence from Credit Cards," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(1), pages 111-164.
    10. Marco Angrisani & Arie Kapteyn & Scott Schuh, 2014. "Measuring Household Spending and Payment Habits: The Role of "Typical" and "Specific" Time Frames in Survey Questions," NBER Chapters, in: Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures, pages 414-440, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Karen Pence & John Sabelhaus, 1999. "Household Saving in the '90s: Evidence from Cross-Section Wealth Surveys: Technical Paper 1999-3," Working Papers 13345, Congressional Budget Office.
    12. Samphantharak,Krislert & Townsend,Robert M., 2010. "Households as Corporate Firms," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521195829.
    13. Eika, Lasse & Mogstad, Magne & Vestad, Ola L., 2020. "What can we learn about household consumption expenditure from data on income and assets?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    14. Schuh, Scott & Stavins, Joanna, 2010. "Why are (some) consumers (finally) writing fewer checks? The role of payment characteristics," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1745-1758, August.
    15. Arna Vardardottir & Michaela Pagel, 2016. "The Liquid Hand-to-Mouth: Evidence from a Personal Finance Management Software," 2016 Meeting Papers 789, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Michael D. Hurd & Susann Rohwedder, 2010. "Effects of the Financial Crisis and Great Recession on American Households," NBER Working Papers 16407, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Dominik H. Enste & Friedrich Schneider, 2000. "Shadow Economies: Size, Causes, and Consequences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 77-114, March.
    18. Marcin Hitczenko, 2015. "Estimating population means in the 2012 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Research Data Report 15-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    19. Marcin Hitczenko, 2016. "The influence of gender and income on the household division of financial responsibility," Working Papers 16-20, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    20. Victor Stango & Jonathan Zinman, 2009. "What Do Consumers Really Pay on Their Checking and Credit Card Accounts? Explicit, Implicit, and Avoidable Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 424-429, May.
    21. Briglevics, Tamás & Schuh, Scott, 2014. "This is what's in your wallet... and how you use it," Working Paper Series 1684, European Central Bank.
    22. Christopher D. Carroll & Thomas F. Crossley & John Sabelhaus, 2015. "Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number carr11-1, March.
    23. Friedrich Schneider & Dominik Enste, 1999. "Shadow Economies Around the World - Size, Causes, and Consequences," CESifo Working Paper Series 196, CESifo.
    24. Carroll, Christopher D. & Crossley, Thomas F. & Sabelhaus, John (ed.), 2015. "Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226126654, December.
    25. Marc Rysman & Marianne Crowe & Joanna Stavins, 2010. "Mobile Payments in the United States at Retail Point of Sale: Current Market and Future Prospects," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2010-055, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    26. Crowe Marianne & Rysman Marc & Stavins Joanna, 2010. "Mobile Payments at the Retail Point of Sale in the United States: Prospects for Adoption," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(4), pages 1-31, December.
    27. Ori Heffetz & Matthew Rabin, 2013. "Conclusions Regarding Cross-Group Differences in Happiness Depend on Difficulty of Reaching Respondents," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 3001-3021, December.
    28. Wang, Zhu & Wolman, Alexander L., 2016. "Payment choice and currency use: Insights from two billion retail transactions," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 94-115.
    29. John Bagnall & David Bounie & Kim P. Huynh & Anneke Kosse & Tobias Schmidt & Scott Schuh, 2016. "Consumer Cash Usage: A Cross-Country Comparison with Payment Diary Survey Data," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 12(4), pages 1-61, December.
    30. Marco Angrisani & Kevin Foster & Marcin Hitczenko, 2014. "The 2011 and 2012 Surveys of Consumer Payment Choice: technical appendix," Research Data Report 14-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    31. Geoffrey R. Gerdes, 2008. "Recent payment trends in the United States," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), vol. 94(Oct), October.
    32. Stephens Melvin, 2006. "Paycheque Receipt and the Timing of Consumption," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(513), pages 680-701, July.
    33. John Gibson & Bonggeun Kim, 2007. "Measurement Error in Recall Surveys and the Relationship between Household Size and Food Demand," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(2), pages 473-489.
    34. Humphrey, David & Kaloudis, Aris & Owre, Grete, 2004. "The future of cash: falling legal use and implications for government policy," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 221-233, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Claire Greene & Joanna Stavins, 2020. "2018 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice," Consumer Payments Research Data Reports 2019-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    2. Krislert Samphantharak & Scott Schuh & Robert M. Townsend, 2018. "Integrated Household Surveys: An Assessment Of U.S. Methods And An Innovation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 50-80, January.
    3. Bokana K.G & Kabongo W.N.S, 2018. "Modelling Real Private Consumption Expenditure in South Africa to Test the Absolute Income Hypothesis," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 10(5), pages 138-155.
    4. Roy Verbaan & Wilko Bolt & Carin van der Cruijsen, 2017. "Using debit card payments data for nowcasting Dutch household consumption," DNB Working Papers 571, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Scott Schuh, 2018. "Measuring Consumer Expenditures With Payment Diaries," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 13-49, January.
    2. Joanna Stavins, 2017. "How do consumers make their payment choices?," Research Data Report 17-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    3. Claire Greene & Shaun O'Brien & Scott Schuh, 2017. "U. S. consumer cash use, 2012 and 2015: an introduction to the Diary of Consumer Payment Choice," Research Data Report 17-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    4. Tamás Briglevics & Scott Schuh, 2020. "This Is What's in Your Wallet...and Here's How You Use It," Working Papers 20-04, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    5. Martin Brown & Nicole Hentschel & Hannes Mettler & Helmut Stix, 2020. "Financial Innovation, Payment Choice and Cash Demand - Causal Evidence from the Staggered Introduction of Contactless Debit Cards," Working Papers on Finance 2002, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    6. Martin Brown & Nicole Hentschel & Hannes Mettler & Helmut Stix, 2020. "Financial Innovation, Payment Choice and Cash Demand – Causal Evidence from the Staggered Introduction of Contactless Debit Cards (Martin Brown,Nicole Hentschel, Hannes Mettler, Helmut Stix)," Working Papers 230, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).
    7. Brown, Martin & Hentschel, Nicole & Mettler, Hannes & Stix, Helmut, 2022. "The convenience of electronic payments and consumer cash demand," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 86-102.
    8. Claire Greene & Scott Schuh & Joanna Stavins, 2018. "The 2012 diary of consumer payment choice," Research Data Report 18-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    9. Jonker, Nicole & van der Cruijsen, Carin & Bijlsma, Michiel & Bolt, Wilko, 2022. "Pandemic payment patterns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    10. Arango, Carlos & Huynh, Kim P. & Sabetti, Leonard, 2015. "Consumer payment choice: Merchant card acceptance versus pricing incentives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 130-141.
    11. Shy, Oz, 2021. "Cashless stores and cash users," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 622-638.
    12. Naoki Wakamori & Angelika Welte, 2017. "Why Do Shoppers Use Cash? Evidence from Shopping Diary Data," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(1), pages 115-169, February.
    13. Chen, Heng & Huynh, Kim P. & Shy, Oz, 2019. "Cash versus card: Payment discontinuities and the burden of holding coins," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 192-201.
    14. Claire Greene & Scott Schuh & Joanna Stavins, 2016. "The 2014 survey of consumer payment choice: summary results," Research Data Report 16-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    15. Shy, Oz, 2020. "How currency denomination and the ATM affect the way we pay," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    16. Sean Connolly & Joanna Stavins, 2015. "Payment instrument adoption and use in the United States, 2009–2013, by consumers' demographic characteristics," Research Data Report 15-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    17. Carin Cruijsen & Frank Horst, 2019. "Cash or Card? Unravelling the Role of Socio-Psychological Factors," De Economist, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 145-175, June.
    18. Fiedler, John L. & Mwangi, Dena M., 2016. "Improving household consumption and expenditure surveys’ food consumption metrics: Developing a strategic approach to the unfinished agenda:," IFPRI discussion papers 1570, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Arifovic, Jasmina & Duffy, John & Jiang, Janet Hua, 2023. "Adoption of a new payment method: Experimental evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    20. Janet Hua Jiang & Enchuan Shao, 2020. "The Cash Paradox," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 36, pages 177-197, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    payments; consumer expenditures; consumption; income; diary survey;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedbwp:17-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Spozio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbbous.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.