Can the Consumer Expenditure Survey data be compared across income brackets?
One analysis that may be of interest is a comparison of cash contribution among different income brackets. However, it should be noted that CE Survey lower income brackets, which for purposes of this analysis would range from $5,000 through $29,999, report higher expenses than income. The CE survey observes: Data users may notice that average annual expenditures presented in the income tables sometimes exceed income before taxes for the lower income groups. The primary reason for that is believed to be the underreporting of income by respondents, a problem common to most household surveys… There are other reasons why expenditures exceed income for the lower income groups. Consumer units whose members experience a spell of unemployment may draw on their savings to maintain their expenditures. Self-employed consumers may experience business losses that result in low or even negative incomes, but are able to maintain their expenditures by borrowing or relying on savings. Students may get
