NOTE: These pages contain part of the Experiment Information Pack and will
also be available in Magnus and Morgan (eds), The Experiment in Applied
Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester/New York, 1998, to appear.


Budget surveys for the Netherlands

1    Introduction

Since 1978 the Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) conducts
Budget Surveys (BS's) annually. Before 1978 the CBS conducted BS's only
occasionally.  The aim of the BS's is to gather information on the
expenditure behaviour of Dutch households in relation with household
characteristics such as household composition, income and education level of
all members of the household.

We have expenditure data for three years: 1965, 1980 and 1988.  The 1965
survey gives data on 26 groups of households.  The 1980 and 1988 surveys are
at household level and are therefore much larger.  They contain 2,859 (in
1980) and 1,950 (in 1988) households, respectively.  The datasets can be
found (in ascii format) on the data diskette under the following names:

     BS65NL.TXT     the 1965 budget survey
     BS80NL.TXT     the 1980 budget survey
     BS88NL.TXT     the 1988 budget survey.

For all three surveys total household consumption (V1) is divided into 6
groups:

     V11  Food
     V22  Housing
     V33  Clothing and footwear
     V44  Hygiene and medical care
     V55  Education, recreation and transport
     V66  Other consumption.

The sum V11 + ... + V66 is not exactly equal to V1 due to measurement error.
More detailed expenditure data is available for 7 subgroups of food:

     V110 Bread, pastry and flour products
     V111 Potatoes, vegetables and fruit
     V113 Products containing sugar and beverages
     V115 Oils and fats
     V116 Meat, meat products and fish
     V118 Dairy products
     V119 Other food products.

Again, the sum of V110 to V119 is not exactly equal to V11 due to
measurement error.


The 1965 survey

The 1965 BS was conducted between June 1963 and May 1965. The information
provided is scarce, mainly because the original micro data have been lost
and all information has thus been gathered from the official CBS publication
(CBS, 1966).

The survey provides data on groups of households, not on individual
households. These groups are based on household income (HINC: 2 classes),
number of persons in the household (HSIZE: 5 classes) and degree of
urbanisation (URB: 3 classes). All together we have 26 groups of households
(rather than 30, since 4 groups are empty).

The 1965 survey is not as rich as the 1980/88 surveys.  The degree of
urbanisation, however, is only available for this cross-section. Only
households with more then two persons, where the head of household is a blue
or white collar worker or an agricultural worker or a farmer are selected.
To make the dataset representative for the Dutch population, weight
variables were created based on profession (blue or white worker,
agricultural worker or farmer) and number of persons in the household.  The
weights themselves are not available.  The presented data are weighted, if
applicable.

At the household level, each household and its consumption expenditures were
weighted before aggregating over households within the 26 groups of
households. The resulting variables are the weighted number of households
(WNUMH) and the average weighted consumption expenditures (V1 to V66).  Thus
WNUMH is simply the sum of the weights within one group.

The CBS also provides information about the "food equivalent" household
sizes.  A child eats less than a grown man and this is reflected in ADULTEQ,
the weighted number of adult equivalents in the household.


The 1980 and 1988 surveys

Information at the household level is available from the 1980 and 1988 BS's.
Both surveys have been collected by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS,
1992).

Not all household are willing to participate in a survey and in 1980 the
population of employees was intentionally oversampled. Therefore, a
weighting variable is constructed (WEIGHT) which can be used to make the
sample representative for the Dutch population.

The head of the household is defined to be the person (man or woman) who
owns or rents the house where the household resides.

We emphasize that some consumer expenditures are negative in the data set 
(7 observations in 1980; 10 in 1988).  This is not a measurement error (see
above footnote).


2    The file BS65NL.TXT

The ascii file contains 26 rows (groups of households) and 21 columns
(variables).  Each variable occupies 8 positions.  Thus each row contains 
8 x 21 = 168 positions as follows:

Position  Name           Description/Code


1-8       YEAR           Year of the survey 
9-16      HSIZE          Household size, the number of persons within the
                         household           
                         Code: 2 =  2 persons
                               3 =  3 persons
                               4 =  4 persons 
                               5 =  5 persons
                               6 =  more than 4 persons if URB = 2
                                    more than 5 persons if URB = 3
17-24          NUMH      Number of households within the group
25-32          WNUMH     Weighted number of households
33-40          ADULTEQ   Number of adult equivalents in the household
41-48          URB       Degree of urbanisation
                         Code: 1 =  Three largest cities: Amsterdam,
                                    Rotterdam and The Hague
                               2 =  Other cities / urban areas
                               3 =  villages / rural areas
49-56          HINC           Gross (!) household income in 1965 Dutch guilders
                         Code: 1 = DFL 6,000 - DFL 9,000 
                               2 = DFL 9,000 - DFL 12,000

Consumption Expenditure variables (average weighted expenditures per
household group)

57-64     V1             Total household consumption
65-72     V11            Food 
73-80     V110           Bread, pastry and flour products
81-88     V111           Potatoes, vegetables and fruit
89-96     V113           Products containing sugar and beverages
97-104    V115           Oils and fats
105-112   V116           Meat, meat products and fish
113-120   V118           Dairy products
121-128   V119           Other food products
129-136   V22            Housing
137-144   V33            Clothing and footwear
145-152   V44            Hygiene and medical care
153-160   V55            Education, recreation and transport
161-168   V66            Other consumption



3    The files BS80NL.TXT and BS88NL.TXT

The two ascii files each contain 24 variables organized in 4 rows per
household.  Each variable occupies 11 positions, except the first variable
in each row which occupies 9 positions.  Missing observations are always
denoted by -999.  The 1980 budget survey contains 2,859 households and the
1988 survey contains 1,950 households.  The corresponding ascii files thus
contain 4 x 2,859 = 11,436 and 4 x 1,950 = 7,800 rows, respectively.  The
positions are defined as follows:

Row  Position  Name      Description/Code

1    1-9       YEAR      Year of the survey 
1    10-20     WEIGHT    Weight variable per household 
1    21-31     HSIZE     Household size, the number of persons within 
                           the household
                         Code: 1 =  1 person
                               2 =  2 persons
                               3 =  3 persons
                               4 =  4 persons
                               5 =  5 - 12 persons
1    32-42     HTYPE     Type of household
                         Code: 0 =  other types
                               1 =  single person
                               2 =  one-family household
1    43-53     AGEHH     Age of head of household           
                         Code: 1 =  12-34 years of age
                               2 =  35-44 years of age
                               3 =  45-54 years of age
                               4 =  55-64 years of age
                               5 =  65 years of age and older
1    54-64     EDUHH     Education level head of household
                         Code: 2 =  primary school
                               3 =  secondary school
                               4 =  intermediate vocational education
                               5 =  higher vocational education
                               6 =  university education (and higher)
1    65-75     LFPHH     Labour force participation status of head 
                           of household
                         Code: 1 =  full-time job
                               2 =  part-time job
                               3 =  otherwise
2    1-9       LFPHP     Labour force participation status of partner
                         Code: 1 =  labour market status partner equals 
			            that of head of household
                               2 =  labour market status partner is not equal
			           to labour market status head of household
2    10-20     SOCGHH    Socio-economic group head of household
                         Code: 1 =  employee
                               2 =  self-employed
                               3 =  unemployed/non-participation
2    21-31     HINC      Household Income, net of taxes and social security
                           premiums (Dutch guilders)
                         Code: 0 - DFL 80,000   net household income
                               DFL 97,300  net household income if larger 
			           than DFL 80,000,- (1980 only)
                               DFL 100,800 net household income if larger 
			           than DFL 80,000,-  (1988 only)


Consumption Expenditure variables
     
2    32-42     V1        Total household consumption
2    43-53     V11       Food 
2    54-64     V110      Bread, pastry and flour products
2    65-75     V111      Potatoes, vegetables and fruit
3    1-9       V113      Products containing sugar and beverages
3    10-20     V115      Oils and fats
3    21-31     V116      Meat, meat products and fish
3    32-42     V118      Dairy products
3    43-53     V119      Other food products
3    54-64     V22       Housing
3    65-75     V33       Clothing and footwear
4    1-9       V44       Hygiene and medical care
4    10-20     V55       Education, recreation and transport
4    21-31     V66       Other consumption


4    References

Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 1966, Nationaal budgetonderzoek
1963/'65: verbruiksrekeningen van hand-, land- en hoofdarbeiders en boeren,
onderscheiden naar inkomensgroepen, grootte van de huishouding en
woonplaatsen, Staatsuitgeverij, 's-Gravenhage.

Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 1992, Gebruikershandboek budgetonderzoek
1988-1989, Voorburg/Heerlen.


Time series for the Netherlands

We have annual observations from 1948-1988 (41 years).  The observations
contain the number of inhabitants in the Netherlands (POP), the number of
households (NOH), the aggregate disposable income (AGGY), and expenditures
(V) and price indices (P) of various consumption categories.

Total household consumption is divided into 6 groups (V11, V22, ..., V66).
The first group is food, which is further divided into 7 subgroups.  The
other groups are not subdivided.

The dataset (in ascii) can be found in the file TS4888NL.TXT. This file
contains 41 rows (years) and 32 columns (variables).  Each variable occupies
8 positions.  Thus each row contains 8 x 32 = 256 positions as follows:

     
Position       Name           Description/Code

 1- 8               YEAR      Year of observation

 9-16               POP       Number of inhabitants (thousands of persons)

17-24               NOH       Number of households (thousands of 
                              households) (-999 indicates a missing value)

24-32               AGGY      Disposable income (millions of guilders)


Consumption Expenditure variables  (millions of guilders)

 33- 40        V1             Total household consumption
 41- 48        V11            Food 
 49- 56        V110           Bread, pastry and flour products
 57- 64        V111           Potatoes, vegetables and fruit
 65- 72        V113           Products containing sugar and beverages
 73- 80        V115           Oils and fats
 81- 88        V116           Meat, meat products and fish
 89- 96        V118           Dairy products
 97-104        V119           Other food products
105-112        V22            Housing
113-120        V33            Clothing and footwear
121-128        V44            Hygiene and medical care
129-136        V55            Education, recreation and transport
137-144        V66            Other consumption


Price indices for each commodity group  (1951 = 100)
     
145-152        P1             Total household consumption
153-160        P11            Food
161-168        P110           Bread, pastry and flour products
169-176        P111           Potatoes, vegetables and fruit
177-184        P113           Products containing sugar and beverages
185-192        P115           Oils and fats
193-200        P116           Meat, meat products and fish
201-208        P118           Dairy products
209-216        P119           Other food products
215-224        P22            Housing
225-232        P33            Clothing and footwear
233-240        P44            Hygiene and medical care
241-248        P55            Education, recreation and transport
249-256        P66            Other consumption

3    Sources

POP (the number of inhabitants) and NOH (the number of households) are
obtained from a publication of the "Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek"
(CBS, 1989).  The data on NOH are only available from 1960 onward.

The data on AGGY (aggregate disposable income) are given in various
publications of the National Accounts (Nationale Rekeningen).  Disposable
income consists of consumption and household savings.  These savings include
contractual savings, e.g. savings through pension funds or life insurance
companies.  Savings through pension funds are mandatory in the Netherlands
for most employees.  It is important to note that in the budget surveys
these contractual savings are not part of "savings".  (In the budgets
surveys savings are "private" savings only.)

Consumption expenditures are also taken from the National Accounts.  In 1977
a revision of the National Accounts took place. This was not so much a
change of definitions, but rather an improvement on the precision. The
revised data are available from 1969 onwards. Before 1969 only consumption
based on the old classification is available. For disposable income, the
revised definition is available only from 1977 onwards.

The corresponding price indices are Laspeyres index numbers.  The base years
are 1951, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1975, 1980 and 1985.

4    References

Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 1989,  1899-1989, negentig jaren 
  statistiek in tijdreeksen, Voorburg/Heerlen.
Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 1991,  Private consumption expenditure 
  and price index numbers for the Netherlands, 1921-1939 and 1948-1988,  
  Voorburg/Heerlen.
Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, published annually, 
  Nationale Rekeningen, Voorburg/Heerlen.
