This paper is presented at the Third National Convention on Statistics on December 13-14, 1982. The 1979 Diary Family income and Expenditure Survey (DFIES) has utilized the diary method of data collection to minimize, if not eliminate, errors and biases arising from the traditional recall-record method of soliciting information. Jointly conducted by the National Tax Research Center and National Census and Statistics Office, DFIES aims to provide reliable quantitative information regarding personal/additional exemptions and household income/expenditure patterns. This article argues for the utilization of DFIES in the Philippines. Areas for improvement of the system are also cited.income, data and statistics, survey method, data collection

Osorio, Nieves L.

English

Research Papers in Economics

THE 1979 DIARY FAMILY INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
SURVEY: EXPERIENCE AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Nieves/ Osorio
I. BACKGROUND ON THE DFIES
The 1979 Diary Family Income and Expenditure Survey utilized
the diary method of data collection to minimize, if not eliminate,
errors and biases arising from the traditional recall-record method
of soliciting information. Expectedly, the diary survey or DFIES
may yield more accurate information to meet the following objec-
tives
General: To provide, reliable quantitative informa-
tion to serve as a sound basis for policy
formulation
Specific: (1)To determine realistic levelsof personal
and additional exemptions and of med-
ical and edtlcational expenses for in-
dividual taxpayers;
(2) To determine income and expenditure
patterns of households by income class
and by source of income.
The National Tax Research Center (NTRC) and the National
Census and Statistics Office (NSCO) jointly undertook the survey
with consultants from the Statistical Coordination Office of the Na-
tional Economic and Development Authority (NEDA-SCO). Survey
design was developed and planned by representatives from the three
agencieswhile the field survey operations were NCSO's main respon-
sibility.
Terms were defined and adapted to suit the purposes of the
survey, and some of these were unique to DFIES. In like manner, the
sampling procedure was attuned to the requirements of the survey.
Respondents were selected using a two-stage stratified systematic
method.
For the first stage, the sampling frame consisted of 2,629 ba-
rangaystaken from the 4,705 barangayswhich have been included
Tax Research BranchChief, NationalTax Research Center.Paperpresented
at the Third NationalConvention onStatistics, December 13-14,1982,Philip-
pineInternational Convention Center, Manila.
146O$ORIO: FAMILY INCOME AND EXPENDITURE SURVEY 147 _
in the integrated Survey of Households(ISH) and those which are
covered by municipal censusofficers (MCOs). The barangayswere
stratified into four groups,asfollows:
(1) rural, agricultural;
(2) rural,nonagricultural;
(3) urban, Metro Manila;and
(4) urban, outsideMetro Manila.
After defining the Strata, different sampling fractions for each stra-
tum were used. These samplingfractions were determined with the
objective of allocatingabout 500 barangaysamongthe four strata.
In the ruralareas,the samplingfraction for agriculturalbarangays
was 1/10 and for nonagricultural,1/5. In the urbansector, it was1/2
for Metro Manila and 1/4 outside Metro Manila. Applying thesefrac-
tions correspondingto the respectivestratum, the sample sizesper
stratum were obtained. Sample barangayswere selectedsystemati-
cally with a randomstart for each region.
In every sample barangay,the frame in the secondstageconsisted
of the listing of all householdswith their 1978 estimated annual
grossincome. Householdswith annual grossincome of 1_100,000 or
over in the sample barangayswere all taken as respondentsto the
survey. All the other householdswere classifiedinto low, middle and
high incomeclasses.Thus, householdswere categorizedaccordingto
annualgrossincomeasfollows:
(1) low - lessthan P4,000;
(2) middle-1_4,000 but lessthan_'20,000;
(3) high- 1_20,000 but lessthant=100,000; and
(4) very high-_=100,000 and over.
For eachbarangaystratum,.apredeterminedsamplesizeof the low
to high income householdswas followed. The total of samplehouse-
holds for each sample barangay was the predetermined sample size
required for the barangay type (stratum) plus all householdswith
very highincome.
The listing of householdsin each samplebarangay wasarranged
according to grossincome in decreasingorder. Sample households
were chosensystematically within every incomestratum. The names
of the he;ads of samplehouseholdswere listedtogether with a listof
replacements.;148 JOURNAL oF PHILIPPINE DEVELOPMENT
TABLE 1.
PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLDS•BY INCOME LEVELS, 1979
Annual Income Distribution
(Inpesos) (inpercent)
No. of households 7,2991455*
Total
100.00
Lessthan 2,000 15.65
2,000 - 3,999 20.58
4,000 - 5,999 16.56
6,000 - 7,999 10.01
8,000 - 9,999 8.23
10,000 - 19,999 16.68
20,000 - 29,999 5.17
30,000 - 49,999 4.14
50,000 - 59,999 0.85
60,000 - 79,999 0.79
80,000 - 99,999 0.48
100,000 - 199,999 0.53
200_000 - 499,999 0.19
500,000 - 999,999 0.06
1_000,000andover 0.01
/
.. .. iml|| _ Jt
Source:1979 DFIES.
*Estimatedtotal numberof households in 10 regionsO$ORIO: FAMILY INCOME AND EXPENDITURE SURVEY 149
TABLE 2
AVERAGE INCOME AND EXPENDITURES OF I_OUSEHOLDSBY
INCOME LEVEL, 1979
(in pesos)
Income Income Expenditures
TOTAL 10,645 13,003
Lessthan 2,000 1,140 4,495
2,000 - 3,999 1,816 4,734
4,000 - 5,999 4,739 6,528
6,000 - 7,999 6,681 8,452
8,000 - 9,999 8,639 11,121
10,000 - 19,999 13,396 15,451
20,000 - 29,999 23,287 24,904
30,000 - 49,999 35,224 33,493
50,000 - 59,999 50,994 58,408
60,000 - 69,999 59,642 78,847
70,000 - 79,999 66,045 62,14'4
80,000 - 89,999 80,249 92,374
90,000 - 99,999 83,451 100,456
100,000 - 149,999 106,218 118,183
150,000 - 199,999 140,539 120,747
200,000 - 249,999 161,093 130,105
250,000 - 499,099 294,438 486,217
500,000 - 999,999 544,110 529,888
1,000,000 andover 1,947;342 1,567,788
Source:1979 DFIES.
TABLE 3
AVERAGE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF HOUSEHOLDSBY
REGION, 1979
(in pesos)
Region Income Expenditure
Philippines 10,645 13,003
NationalCapitalregion 18,800 21,752
Region I 11,131 13,214
II 6,564 7,885
III 11,325 15,565
IV 11,777 14,366
V 8,316 9,686
Vl 6,849 9,407
VII 7,401 10,043
VIII 6,008 6,684
X 9,154 9,701
_urce: 1979 DFIES.150 JOURNALOFPHILIPPINE DEVELOPMENT
TABLE 4
PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL HOUSEHOLD
EXPENDITURES BY ITEM OF EXPENDITURE, 1979
item Percent Rank
Distribution
Total 100.00
Food 31.29 1
Alcoholic beverages 0.69 17
Tobacco,cigarettes 0.85 15
Clothing 3.68 7
Housing 10.13 3
Householdfurnishingandequipment 1.26 13
Househo!d operations 1.09 14
Fuel,light andwater 2.57 8
Personal care 0,56 18
Medicalcare 2,20 10
Transportationandcommunication 5,13 4
Recreation 0.79 16
Education 3.95 6
Gifts, contribution,assistance to outsiders 25.33 2
Taxes 1.55 12
Specialoccasion of family 1.50 11
Personal effects .24 19
Misc.goods and services 8.92 5
Others .57 9
Source: 1979 DFIES.OSORIO:FAMILY INCOME AND EXPENDITURE SURVEY 151
There were three kindsof respondentsin every samplehousehold
- the headof household,the family head,and any individual earner.
The total of 554 samplebarangays includedin the survey were
divided into six sets.Eachset covereda three-month period,1 except
the sixth set which had November and December only. The last
month of one set overlapped with the first month of the succeeding
set.
Field survey operations commenced on February 1979. Over
1,000 householdswere expected to respondfor the first setcovering
the surveyperiod from january to March. The diary for the month
of January was recorded on a recall method with the assistanceof
the MCO interviewer.
During the first house visit, the interviewer gathered the follow-
ingbackgroundinformation on the household:
(1) namesof householdmembers
(2) relationshipto householdhead
(3)sex
(4) age
(5) marital status
(6) highestgradecompleted
(7) primary or main occupation
(8) kind of business or industry
The interviewer explained how the diarieswere to be accomplished
to one responsiblemember within the householdserving asthe con-
tact personor cooperator.Each samplehouseholdwasprovided with
a copy of the "Guidelines for Respondents"written in the dominant
vernacularwithin the locality. The guidelinescontained instructions
on how daily transactionsof receiptsand disbursementswere to be
recordedand described.
Basedon the backgroundinformation gathered,the interviewer
identified who among the householdmembersshould begivendiary-
forms. Eachqualified respondentin the householdwasprovidedwith
a separatediary. Diary forms were distributed and collected every
week. The interviewers were to clarify unusualentries in the diaries
and find out if there was any problem encounteredby the respon-
dents.
1. By May 1979, the survey period for each set had been reduced to two
months.:i52 JOURNAL OF PHILIPPINE DEVELOPMENT
The interviewersedited the accomplied diary-formsbefore sub-
mitting them to NCSO's •Household SurveysDivision. Formsreceived
at NCSO-HSD were monitored to determine which samplebarangays
and householdswere responding.•MCOs were notified immediately
•when some diaries were missing.NCSO-HSD transmitted the forms
to NTRC for manual processing.
For uniform interpretation of entriesin the diaries,eachcoder in
the manual processingunit had a manual of instructionsexplaining
the objectives of the survey,•the data requirements, the screening
and coding process.All recorded transactions in the diaries were
summarized into the DFIES ProcessingSheetsalong with the back-
ground information on the household.Completed processingsheets
weregivento NCSO in batchesfor machine processing.
An estimate of the characteristicsfor the ath income classin
hth barangaystratum in a regionisgivenby
bha bha Nhia Nhia
X _h _ 1 ._, " T.,
bha Phi " Nhla J Xhlaj
where: '
Xhlei -- characteristics for the jth household of the ath income
classin the/th barangay belongingto the hth.stratum
nnia - numberof samplehouseholdsin the hiathclass
IVhi a -- numberof householdslistedin the hlath class
Phi -- 1975 population of ith barangay
Ph -- 1'975stratum population
bh -- number of sample barangaysof ath income class.inthe
hth stratum
.11. DFIESEXPERIENCE
The diary method of data gathering is-subjectto.several pitfalls
like the difficulty of eiiciting the sustainedcooperationof identified
respondents, 'possiblelossof diary-forms in transit from the field to
NCSO,HSD andothers. Basedon the Weekly Reportsof the MCOs or
CAs, some of the morefrequent problems encountered in the fie!d
are:
(1) Respondents were not .receptive to the idea of the diaryOSORIO: FAMILY INCOME AND EXPENDITURE SURVEY i53
method for various reasons.The most common reasonwas
that they were busy to take time out recordingdaily transac-
tions.
(2) The interviewers had transportation problems and their
allowance wasnot enough.
(3) Respondents were not available during the interviewer's
visits. Some respondents changed residence during harvest
time.
(4) Respondentsdid not know how to fill up diary forms pro-
perly in spite of explanationsgivenby interviewers.
(5) Residencesof respondents were in some instancesquite far
from eachother, and weekly visits proved to be cumbersome.
Although numerous problems weremet in the field survey, the
responserate was encouraging in most regions. As expected, Metro
Manila had the highestnonresponse.
During the manual processingof accomplished diary-forms, a
number of common difficulties were againencountered. Most of the
problems must have stemmed from basiccauses,one was the lack
of understanding of the importance and concepts of the survey
among the interviewers and the respondents. It was quite often that
respondents recorded their disbursementslumping various expen-
ditures into one transaction. The second causewas that the inter-
viewers were saddled with many, other things to do, leaving not
enough time to clarify and edit diary-forms before submission to
NSCO-HSD.
The systemsdesignwasprepared way aheadof the Completion of
the field operations. Nevertheless,machine processingexperienced
numerous difficulties. Suchdifficulties couldbe traced to the follow-
ing reasons:
(1) the volume of recordshandled;
(2) the inclusion of more than one respondent per samplehouse-
hold;
(3) the newnessof someconcepts;
(4) error in somedata inputs. Computer programs could not be
properly tested sincemuch time was devoted to:the cleaning of the
files, and there were many other projects beinghandled by the same
programmers.154 JOURNAl= OF PHILIPPINE DEVELOPMENT
These difficulties did not hinder the working group (from NTRC,
NCSO-HSD and EDP) from producingthe priority tableswhich were
basedon the data requirements of NCSO and NTRC. To the extent
possible,specifications from the National Accounts Staff of NEDA-
SCO were included.
Iii, CONCLUDING REMARKS
Considering the contraints and resourcesunder which DFIES was
undertaken, survey results show some indications that the diary
method of data gathering may be utilized in the Philippines, One area
needing improvement is the employment of interviewers who would
visit respondents more than once a week, MCOs could not be expect-
ed to allot more time to this kind of undertaking since they have
other surveysto handle.
Another means of improving results for this survey is to allow
more time for interviewers, codersand EDP personnel to understand
the concepts used. The need of the NTRC for information on the
nuclear family and individual earner necessitated some concepts not
ordinarily used in the usual income and expenditure survey.
A third item needing reexamination isthe choice of respondents.
The selection should recognize that respondents to a diary survey
require closer supervision from the interviewers.
The sampling and estimation procedure needs a second look.
Using the previous year's income as basisfor blowing up the charac-
teristic derived from a household for the current year seemingly
distorts the resulting income distribution. This was evidenced by one
sample household which was listed under middle income class in
1978. Perhapsthose knowledgeable in sampling might be interested
in studying further suchcases.

The 1979 Diary Family Income and Expenditure Survey: Experience and Preliminary Results

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