Note to Reviewer

December 20, 2010

MEMORANDUM FOR Reviewer of 1220-0157

FROM Chuck Pierret, Chief

Division of National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS)

Bureau of Labor Statistics

SUBJECT Notification of collection of college transcripts

As requested in the terms of clearance for the NLS97 Round 14, we are notifying OMB that the funding to collect college transcripts was approved. We will be collecting permission from respondents in Round 14 to obtain college transcripts. We will provide results of cooperation with this request when the clearance package for Round 15 is submitted to OMB.

A decision was made to postpone the collection of birth certificates in Round 14 to allow for the collection of the college transcripts.

Current OMB approval of the NLS97 surveys is scheduled to expire on October 31, 2011.

If you have any questions about this request, please contact Jay Meisenheimer by telephone at 202-691-7409 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Note to Reviewer of 1220-0050

I.Introduction and Purpose

The Bureau of the Census conducts the Consumer Expenditure (CE) surveys for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as part of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) program. The continuing CE surveys provide a constant measurement of changes in consumer expenditure patterns for economic analysis and obtain data for future CPI revisions.

The structure of the rebate provides an opportunity to answer some important questions in at least three areas: Macro forecasting, analysis of cyclical tax policy, and consumption theory. However, it will not be possible to reach firm conclusions unless economists have access to a household-level dataset that contains information both on spending and on the timing of the receipt of the rebate check. It is felt that the CE survey's spending data are ideal, but no existing question on the survey will allow researchers to pin down the timing of receipt of the tax rebates by individual households, and without this information it may not be possible to pin down the spending effects of the rebate.

The Quarterly Interview Survey uses a rotating panel scheme. Consumer units (CUs) are in sample for 5 consecutive quarters. The first interview is used for bounding purposes or as a starting point from which to collect a year’s worth of expenditures. Interviews 2-5 update already collected information and collect three months worth of expenditures for that CU. The proposed questions would be asked during interviews 2-5. August households would answer the questions again in November; September households would answer them again in December. By asking these questions over the course of five months we will be able to track the effects of the tax legislation.

For the question wording and format, please see attachment 1.

II.Respondents

There are an estimated 4000 consumer units (CUs) that are visited for the Quarterly Expenditure Survey for interviews 2-5 per month. A CU is the unit from which we desire expenditure reports. It consists of all household members of a particular housing unit or other type of living quarters who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or some other legal arrangement. The CU determination for unrelated persons is based on financial independence. The unrelated persons are considered separate CU(s) if they are responsible for paying their own expenses for two out of three of the following expense categories: shelter, food, and all other expenses. Approximately 95 percent of all occupied living quarters are a single CU.

The following table shows expected workload for the Quarterly Interview Survey between August and December, 2001.

Month	CUs
August	3903
September	3899
October	3976
November	3993
December	4019
Total	19790

III.Burden Hours

The additional questions in the Quarterly Interview Survey are expected to take only 1 additional minute for each CU.

	Interview
Number of responses	19790
Minutes per response	1
Total hours	330

Total Hours Response Burden = 330

The estimate of costs to respondents based on burden hours to answer is $1,700. This estimate is based on the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour times the 330 additional burden hours.

IV.Payments to Respondents

There are no payments made to the respondents for this survey.

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