Creating an Integrated System of Data and Statistics on Household Income, Consumption, and Wealth Time to Build (2024) / Chapter Skim
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3 Statistics for Policy and Public Understanding
3 Statistics for Policy and Public Understanding
Pages 115-162
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ahttps://www.bls.gov/bls/statistical-policy-directive-3.pdf PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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BLS currently publishes 12-month consumer unit expenditure estimates every six months from the CE survey, PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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The 1940 census was the first to ask about income, specifically wages and salaries and other sources of more than $50, and the Census Bureau began regular annual publication of household money income estimates in 1947. BEA (and its predecessor agency)
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71, 72 In the United States, BEA made 69 The Census Bureau has long published estimates of household money income, but their usefulness was undercut by high and increasing levels of nonresponse and underreporting of income in the CPS ASEC, the lack of coverage of very-high-income households, and the fact that the money income definition omits many components of the comprehensive BEA PI measure. 70 See https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/distribution-of-household-income-consumption-andsaving-in-line-with-national-accounts_615c9eec-en.
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For example, if in-kind PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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BEA has published monthly, The Census Bureau has SOI/IRS has published Timeline quarterly, and annual published annual estimates of annual estimates of total estimates of total and per money income since 1947 AGI and taxable income capita PI and disposable and after-tax money income from individual income tax (after-tax) PI since 1947.
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The definition of adjusted gross income for tax filing units necessarily reflects the provisions of the federal income tax code; it is useful for comparisons with other definitions. The Census Bureau's household "regular money income" definition does not accord with international practice or other established income definitions and is overdue for revision as the basis for an established household income statistics series.
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The Census Bureau could continue to publish money income estimates in appendixes to its household income reports for the use of relevant programs. Summarized below are selected uses of money income in poverty measurement and program eligibility.
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, and the Census Bureau should move as quickly as possible, consistent with time PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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NEWS should follow suit. The Census Bureau should publish money income estimates in appendixes to its reports for use by relevant programs.
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. Recommendation 3-2: Relevant statistical agencies (Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau, Statistics of Income of the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Reserve Board)
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In practice, joint distributions The Census Bureau provides breakdowns of components in tables of money income for people ages 78 15 or 18 and older but not for households or families. See CPS Income Data Tables (census.gov)
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, whether or not they PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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The household, as defined by the Census Bureau, is used in money income statistics, in BEA's distributional PI statistics, and in CBO's income series, and it is also widely used internationally. There is also policy and public interest in how families are faring, excluding household members who are not part of the family unit such as a boarder or a caretaker.
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, 28% were single-person households, 6% were households with two unrelated PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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Families are also of considerable policy interest in their own right; but, when a family definition is used, it seems preferable to adopt something along the lines of the SPM approach, which defines family units as including cohabiting couples and foster children The Census Bureau, then, might replace its family and unrelated individual tables with family households (treating cohabitors as families and singles as families) and then produce tables of family households without nonrelatives, of PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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CPS data to produce short-lagged, previous 12-month estimates of income and poverty (the monthly CPS obtains estimates of total family money income for the preceding PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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More detailed information on components may also be helpful to rank households, for example, according to their main source of income. A common breakdown in this regard is into "wages and salaries," "income from self-employment," "net property income," and "net current PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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With regard to detailed categories, for households and families the Census Bureau only provides total money income and earnings and no other component. In contrast, for people ages 15 and older the Census Bureau provides the number of such people in various income categories for more than 25 components, including not only wages and salary but also veterans' benefits, dividends, alimony, and others.
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It has produced consumer unit estimates of PCE for deciles and the top 1% of consumer units. FRB publishes distributional financial accounts estimates of PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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90 In addition, BEA and BLS produce Theil indexes, coefficients of variation, and the ratio of the 80th to the 20th percentiles for household PI and PCE. The Census Bureau additionally produces ratios of the 90th to the 50th and the 50th to the 10th percentiles for household money income.
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Geographic Detail A growing body of research across the social sciences has shown substantial geographic variation in numerous outcomes that are likely tied to wealth and wealth accumulation, such as PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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. The Census Bureau publishes median money income for households by region and metropolitan status, that is, inside principal cities, outside principal cities, and outside metropolitan statistical areas.
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– https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx? src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irs.gov%2Fpub%2Fi rs-soi%2F20zpdoc.docx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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Yet another useful distinction could be estimates for households with owned businesses versus other households and households that rent property versus other households. For analytic purposes, combinations of two or more of PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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As with the other attributes of established statistical series discussed above, statistical agencies vary in the characteristics for which they produce estimates -- see Table 3-3. There are also very few cross-tabulations of characteristics or of characteristics by geography, because the underlying datasets lack sufficient sample size (the exception is that the Census Bureau provides race, sex, and broad age group cross-tabulations for money income of people ages 15 and older)
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some college; worked < 27 native-born, non-Hispanic, Families: associate weeks; worked naturalized, Total Black, Similar type, degree; up to 50 weeks; noncitizen Black Alone, size. bachelor's worked 50+ PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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labor market among Hispanic respondents to the survey. However, the same survey does include interviewer coding of the skin tone of the respondents, and the data reveal strong evidence of PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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Census Bureau to capture more information on people's race and ethnic identities, critical analysis of these delineations of race and ethnicity, the definitions of the categories, and the data sources that could be used to measure race and ethnicity would have great value. SUMMARY Established statistics on household consumption, expenditures, income, and wealth play an important role in framing public debates on many issues of economic wellbeing in the United PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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