I understand that, beginning with publication of the 2004 tables, the Consumer Expenditure Survey results include imputed income data. What does this mean for the typical user?
Nonresponse is a common problem in household surveys, particularly for questions regarding income. Nonresponse means that the respondent either does not know, or refuses to provide, the information requested. Prior to publication of the 2004 tables, the Consumer Expenditure Survey handled nonresponse to income questions by publishing income data for complete income reporters only. To be classified as a complete income reporter, the respondent had to provide a value for at least one major source of income for the consumer unit. However, not all complete reporters provided a full accounting of income for all sources for which receipt was reported. Starting in 2004, the Consumer Expenditure Survey introduced multiple imputation to fill in the blanks resulting from nonresponse to income questions. In this method several estimates are made each time the respondent reports the receipt of, but no value for, a particular source of income. The estimates are made based on characteristics of the
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