Consumer Surveys of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.

This article provides an overview of the consumer survey conducted by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. The consumer surveys cover three major areas: consumer sentiment, consumer inflationary expectations and household saving intentions. Additional survey data collected on a quarterly basis include wage-related data, which track employees' self-reported wage changes. Also, respondents' retail purchase intentions are surveyed on behalf of an external marketing company. The Melbourne Institute consumer survey is conducted monthly by telephone by OZ INFO, an external survey company. The survey covers 11 broad areas, with some questions asked every month but others asked on a quarterly basis, as specified. In early 2003, a number of questions were added to the standard Melbourne Institute consumer survey to assess attitudes to the Iraq war and the risk of terrorism. Future plans for further developing the usage of the Melbourne Institute consumer survey dataset include assessing the possibilities for making available the associated unit record data in easily accessible form to those who are interested. As of 2004, the raw data collected in this survey are not publicly available. A range of options exists for packaging and selling the survey unit record data to potential users. These options include putting the data into some sort of data cube capable of linking various data in the dataset.