Differences in Overall Spending Patterns and Spending on Child Care by Family Type: An Exploratory Study Using the Consumer Expenditure Survey

摘要

The report presents the results of an exploratory study undertaken to evaluate the potential for use of data from the Consumer Expenditures Survey (CES) for analyzing (1) child-care spending by different categories of families and (2) differences in overall spending patterns for families with different levels of child-care spending. Selected family demographic and expenditure data were extracted from the CES for the period 1980-85 to form a data base for use in this and future studies. The applications of this data base undertaken here are intended to illustrate its potential uses and not to produce a comprehensive study of child-care related spending behavior. The CES clearly provides a rich source of information for analyzing child-care spending as a function of key variables such as family income, age of youngest child, marital status, number of earners, and others.