Information for Respondents
The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) was last conducted in 2007. The families interviewed in that survey were selected to give a statistical representation of the financial status of U.S. families. Normally, participants would not be contacted again after an interview, except if there was a need to confirm that they had in fact been visited by an interviewer or if they had asked to receive the survey results.
But changes in the economy since the last survey have placed a very high value on knowledge about how those overall changes have affected various types of families. In light of the exceptional circumstances, we are asking the earlier participants to take part in one more survey.
Although excellent information is available from the federal statistical system about changes for families overall, there is far less information available for understanding the range of changes in the financial situation of individual families over the past two years. The only practical way to see this change is to gather data a second time from families who have already participated in our survey.
Most people know that the Federal Reserve Board is charged with overseeing monetary policy and the regulation of key parts of financial markets. The role that households play in the Board's decisions is less well known. The decisions that households make about spending, saving and investing collectively drive the great majority of all economic activity. Changes in those decisions can have very large effects on the economy overall. In addition, the Federal Reserve Board is charged with facilitating full employment and with overseeing important aspects of consumer protection in financial markets. Solid information on households' finances is essential for fully informed policy decisions. The data will also be used in research to deepen our understanding for the future.
The 2009 survey will be conducted from July through December 2009. The interviewing will be done for the Federal Reserve Board by NORC, a national organization for social science and survey research at the University of Chicago. The NORC website for the SCF provides answers to questions that you, as a potential respondent, may have about the study.
NORC interviewers will attempt to contact everyone who participated in our 2007 survey to allow them to ask detailed questions about their role in the 2009 survey. All interviewers are required to carry an official NORC picture identification card; if you are contacted, please ask to see it.
Protecting the confidentiality of survey respondents is of paramount importance to NORC and the Federal Reserve Board. The SCF is conducted in the public interest and the data collected will be used for statistical purposes only. Such information is strongly protected under the law. Only people who are directly engaged in arranging and conducting interviews are allowed to see the names of the survey respondents. Furthermore, the answers participants give to the survey questions are permanently separated from their names, and the identity of the participants appears nowhere in the study results. No one at the Federal Reserve Board is permitted to see the names of the participants.
Potential respondents seeking further clarification are encouraged to contact NORC (e-mail NORC at scf@norc.uchicago.edu, call the toll-free NORC project number at 1 888-493-5957, or call the NORC Project Director, Catherine Haggerty, at 312-759-4065) so that their names will not be known to anyone at the Federal Reserve Board. Potential respondents who wish to contact the Federal Reserve Board for additional information may call the Board's Office of Public Affairs, at 202-452-2955.
The survey is completely voluntary. But we hope that potential respondents will recognize the importance of their information in representing the range of changes in the finances of families from all walks of life throughout the United States.
Please read the letter from Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, in which he describes the study and encourages participation.
Press release: Board Begins 2009 Survey of Consumer Finances