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	Housing1

V33	Clothing and footwear

V44	Hygiene and medical care

V55	Education, recreation and transport

V66	Other consumption.2

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 selected3. 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 expenditures4 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 household5.

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 population6.

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 =	ƒ 6,000 - ƒ 9,000

2 =	ƒ 9,000 - ƒ 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 household7

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 Income8, net of taxes and social security
premiums (Dutch guilders)

Code:	0 - ƒ 80,000	net household income

ƒ 97,300	net household income if larger than
ƒ 80,000,-9 (1980 only)

ƒ 100,800	net household income if larger than
ƒ 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: verbruiksrekeni
ngen 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.