FR3077_20201124_omb_B

Supporting Statement Part B of the
Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking
(FR 3077; OMB No. 7100-0374)
Summary
For all information collections that involve surveys or require a statistical methodology,
the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is required to provide a complete
justification and explanation of the use of such a methodology. For collections that employ
surveys without such a methodology, the Board should be prepared to justify its decision not to
use statistical methods in any case where such methods might reduce burden or improve
accuracy of results.
Background
The Board conducts consumer-focused research, as well as implements statutory
requirements and facilitates community development. The Board’s Division of Consumer and
Community Affairs (DCCA) directs consumer- and community-related functions performed by
the Board, including conducting research on financial services policies and practices and their
implications for economic and supervisory policies that are core to the Board’s functions, as well
as to gain insight into consumer decisionmaking, consumer financial stability, community
development, and neighborhood stabilization. These activities promote a fair and transparent
consumer financial services market, including for traditionally underserved households and
neighborhoods.
Data from the Board’s consumer survey efforts is used to provide timely information on
developments in consumer financial markets, consumer behaviors, and conditions and emerging
risks in communities. Consumer surveys are an important tool for informing understanding of
consumer financial decisions and markets, and the Board has a long history of using surveys to
inform its work.
Previously, the SHED was conducted as an ad hoc survey under FR 3053, then as an
anticipated survey under FR 3073, with the resulting reports and publically released datasets
(void of sensitive PII) from previous iterations of the SHED made available on the public
website.1
Since then the SHED has grown in the number of respondents and in the length of the
instrument. The number of SHED respondents has grown in order to increase the level of subgroup analysis. The instrument has grown in length to collect additional information on topics
that are of interest between years and to accommodate the demand for information on new trends
and risks that are emerging. It has also become a well-recognized tool for researchers both within
and outside the Federal Reserve System. The SHED’s goal has also expanded to include question
modules that can be utilized to quickly respond to the need for information on emerging risks
and trends. Due to the growth of the data collection, the anticipation that this collection will
continue on an annual basis, the changing nature of the information that is collected and the
1

https://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerscommunities/shed.htm.

potential policy, operational, supervisory and regulatory uses, the Board implemented the SHED
as a standard information collection.
The information collected in the SHED is generally not available from other sources or is
not available in conjunction with related information included in the survey. In order to identify
and mitigate duplication, the survey questionnaire is reevaluated annually to identify new and
emerging areas for which the SHED can offer new insights and to remove topics which have
limited value given existing data. Were the data collection to be stopped or conducted less
frequently it would reduce the abilities of the Board to monitor emerging economic issues
identified as being in need of data collection in the survey, including issues with particular
relevance to low and moderate income communities.
The Board expects to retain all final reports, final survey instruments, and non-restricted
data (without PII) on the public website. Restricted data associated with the final report will be
retained for at least four years; drafts of the final report will be retained for at least two years; the
data collected from the survey instruments will be retained by the third party vendor for at least
six months; recruiting and participant lists will be maintained by the third party vendor who
fielded the instrument; and Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative contract records will
be retained for at least six years after final payment.
Universe and Respondent Selection
The Board anticipates conducting the SHED annually with as many as 17,000
respondents per survey. The SHED data collection is conducted through a vendor who maintains
an online probability-based Internet panel. An online probability-based Internet panel is defined
here as a panel of voluntary respondents that have been recruited through an address-based
sampling methodology (ABS) using the Delivery Sequence File of the United States Postal
Service technique or other similar technique that would allow for equal probability of selection
into the panel for all potential respondents. There are several reasons that a probability-based
Internet panel was selected as the method for this survey. First, these types of Internet surveys
that employ address based sampling (ABS) (or a similar sampling technique) for recruitment
have been found to be representative of the general population. Second, the ABS Internet panel
allows the same respondents to be re-interviewed in subsequent surveys with relative ease, as the
respondents remain active in the panel for several years. Third, Internet panel surveys have
numerous existing data points on respondents from previously administered surveys, including
detailed demographic and economic information, allowing for the inclusion of additional
information on respondents without increasing respondent burden. Finally, collecting data
through an ABS Internet panel survey is cost-effective and can be done relatively quickly. The
resulting samples would behave as Equal Probability of Selection Method (EPSEM) samples.
The questions in the survey have been designed to better illuminate the activities,
experiences, and attitudes of individual consumers regarding their financial lives and the
financial wellbeing of those in their household. They are intended to complement and augment
the existing base of knowledge from other data sources.

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The SHED is a general population survey such that it would behave as an EPSEM. The
methodology used to develop a respondent universe that behaves as an EPSEM would start by
weighting the respondent universe to detailed geodemographic benchmarks of adults living in the
United States from, for example, the latest March supplement of the Current Population Survey
(CPS). The weights would then be used as the measure of size (MOS) for each respondent within
the respondent universe, allowing for a probability proportional to size (PPS) procedure to select
the 2020 SHED respondent sample, in turn allowing each respondent to carry a design weight of
unity. To accommodate for the oversample of low- or moderate- income respondents, the
corresponding design weights would be manually adjusted to correct for this departure from a
representative sample of the general population.
Procedures for Collecting Information
The survey data are weighted to produce reliable estimates of population parameters. It is
expected that the 2020 SHED would be weighted to compensate for limitations such as
differential nonresponse and undercoverage within the respondent universe.
To further compensate for limitations within the panel when sub-populations vary
considerably, each subpopulation (stratum) would be sampled independently. The strata would
be mutually exclusive (i.e., members must be assigned to only one stratum) and collectively
exhaustive (i.e., no members can be excluded).
Random or systematic sampling would then be applied within each stratum.
Stratification2 improves the representativeness of the sample by reducing sampling error. It also
likely produces a weighted mean that has less variability than the arithmetic mean of a simple
random sample of the population.
In order to identify the relevant strata for the SHED, the universe of respondents could be
enhanced with various ancillary data (maintained by the vendor) to facilitate a stratification plan.
This ancillary data could allow for a disproportionate stratified sampling methodology across
such strata as:
Stratum 1: Hispanic households with at least one 18 to 24 year-old,
Stratum 2: Remaining Hispanic households,
Stratum 3: Remaining households with at least one 18-24 year-old, and
Stratum 4: All remaining households.
Initial, follow-up, and survey initiation contact with the sample respondents within the
respondent universe would be conducted by the vendor. The exact form of each of these contacts
would vary somewhat, depending upon vendor preference.

2

Stratification is the process of grouping members of the population into relatively homogeneous sub-groups before
sampling.

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Sample Respondent Contact
Steps
Description
1
Adults from address-based sampled households are invited to join the vendor panel
through a series of mailings or other initial contact methods. Households who receive
the initial contact have the opportunity to respond and join the panel.
2
The subset of addresses that match to a corresponding telephone number and have
not responded to the initial contact (mailing or other form) receive a follow-up phone
call. Households who receive the follow-up contact call have the opportunity to
respond and join the panel.
3
Respondents who join the panel receive surveys through the processes and
technology established by the vendor.
The respondents receive e-mails when there is a survey available for them to take. The
surveys are posted on a secure website developed and maintained using the vendor’s proprietary
web survey delivery system. The software easily accommodates different question formats,
including open-ended response fields. It also allows participants to skip questions. Development
and testing of the web survey would follow well-established, documented best methods. If a
respondent could not be reached through the web, an in person or phone survey could be
conducted.
These surveys could be qualitative or quantitative in nature. It is expected that the
quantitative and some of the qualitative aspects of this survey would be conducted online.
Qualitative data collected could include questions that are categorical, yes-no, ordinal, and openended. Quantitative data collected could include dollar amounts, percentages, numbers of items,
and other such information pertaining to the financial health of the consumer.
Methods to Maximize Response
The Board expects that the respondents would include a nationally representative sample
of non-institutionalized individuals who are 18 years of age and older with the respondent
components including an oversample of low- or moderate-income individuals (such as
households who make $40,000 or less per year), a sample of re-interviewed respondents from the
previous survey, and a fresh, nationally representative sample of respondents. The oversample of
low- or moderate- income respondents would allow a deeper analysis into segments of the
population most likely to experience financial hardship. Because of the panel nature of the
vendor’s respondent pool, this sample naturally includes a sample of re-interviewed respondents
would to allow for evaluating changes in respondent’s economic conditions as well as time series
analysis. The vendor could use incentives such as modest cash deposits, raffles and lotteries with
cash, and other prizes to enhance the completion rate. Because the 2020 SHED would be longer
than 15 minutes, the Board could use additional cash incentives (expected to be between $5 and
$30), to be paid through the same system that the vendor provides its incentives, to enhance
completion rates. Prepaid cash incentives have been found to increase response rates.3

3

Church, A. H. (1993). Estimating the effect of incentives on mail survey response rates: A meta-analysis. Public
Opinion Quarterly, 57, 62-79. Edwards, P., Roberts, I., Clarke, M., DiGuiseppi, C., Pratap, S., Wentz, R., and Kwan,

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Testing of Procedures
To ensure that the questions are clearly written and would produce accurate and valid
results, the Board may conduct cognitive testing on a subset of the new or revised questions.
Cognitive testing is a well-established qualitative research method intended to identify problems
respondents have with comprehension of survey questions (Willis 2005)4. Efforts would be made
to recruit respondents who are demographically representative of the population being surveyed.

I. (2002). Increasing response rates to postal questionnaires: Systematic review. British Medical Journal, 324, 11831191.
4
Willis, G.B. (2005). Cognitive Interviewing: A Tool for Improving Questionnaire Design. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications.

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