Estimating household production outputs with time use episode data

It is not widely recognised that diary-based surveys of time use contain data not only on ‘input’ time but also on ‘output’ time. The diaries record episodes of time use throughout the day showing activities that can be categorised not only as household production input time, such as preparing a meal, but also household output (or consumption) time such as eating a meal. Harvey and Mukhopadhyay (1996) seem to have been the first to use the methodology of counting output episodes from time use surveys to estimate and value household production outputs. Using episode data from the 1992 Canadian time use survey, they counted the number of meals, the hours of child care and the nights of accommodation. Our paper explores the application of this methodology to the episode data from Australian time use surveys. We extend the outputs to include episodes of transport provided by households. This is in accord with the Eurostat recommendation to include transport as a final output in the preparation of satellite accounts of household production.Household production outputs, time use surveys, episode data, gross household product, satellite accounts of household production, accommodation, meals, child care, clean clothes, transport

CALCULATING AUSTRALIA'S GROSS HOUSEHOLD PRODUCT: MEASURING THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY 1970-2000

This paper presents estimates for a thirty year period of Australia’s Gross Household Product (GHP), the economic value added by unpaid labour and the households own capital. In 2000 GHP was estimated to be worth $471 billion. Gross Market Product (GDP minus the imputed value of owner-occupied housing) was worth$604 billion in 2000. The household economy was nearly 80 per cent of the size of the market economy in 2000. More importantly, the GHP is nearly half (44%) of total economic activity (Gross Economic Product). The household economy absorbs more labour time than the market economy. In 2000 Australians spent about 15 per cent more time on non-market activities than market ones. The failure of statistical organisations to provide official estimates of the household economy (GHP) means that almost half of the total valuable economic activities undertaken by Australians are ignored by economists and policy makers.

Global Projections of Household Numbers Using Age Determined Ratios

A new method based upon age determined population ratios is described and used to estimate household population intensities (households per person). Using an additive and a bounded model household projections are given to 2050 for the world and to 2030 for seven fertility transition subgroups (cohorts) of the countries of the world. Based upon United Nations 2002 Revision data, from an estimated 1.56 billion households at 2000, household growth to 2030 is projected to be an additional 1.1 billion households, whether population increase is 1.3 billion persons under the United Nations low fertility variant or 2.7 billion persons under the high fertility variant. At that date over one third of all households are projected to be Chinese or Indian. By 2050 it is projected that there will be 3.3 billion households with a 95 per cent confidence interval on modelling error only of ± 0.5 billion. This compares with 3.2 billion in the Habitat: Global Report on Human Settlements 1996. The apparent similarity of total household growth under various scenarios conceals a wide range in the growth of household intensities across fertility transition cohorts. It is suggested that models, projections and error be reviewed biennially and that household and population projections be produced jointly.Household projections, world, age ratios, fertility

Shotgun Proteomics Identifies Serum Fibronectin as a Candidate Diagnostic Biomarker for Inclusion in Future Multiplex Tests for Ectopic Pregnancy

Ectopic pregnancy (EP) is difficult to diagnose early and accurately. Women often present at emergency departments in early pregnancy with a 'pregnancy of unknown location' (PUL), and diagnosis and exclusion of EP is challenging due to a lack of reliable biomarkers. The objective of this study was to identify novel diagnostic biomarkers for EP. Shotgun proteomics, incorporating combinatorial-ligand library pre-fractionation, was used to interrogate pooled sera (n = 40) from women undergoing surgery for EP, termination of viable intrauterine pregnancy and management of non-viable intrauterine pregnancy. Western blot was used to validate results in individual sera. ELISAs were developed to interrogate sera from women with PUL (n = 120). Sera were collected at time of first symptomatic presentation and categorized according to pregnancy outcome. The main outcome measures were differences between groups and area under the receiver operating curve (ROC). Proteomics identified six biomarker candidates. Western blot detected significant differences in levels of two of these candidates. ELISA of sera from second cohort revealed that these differences were only significant for one of these candidates, fibronectin. ROC analysis of ability of fibronectin to discriminate EP from other pregnancy outcomes suggested that fibronectin has diagnostic potential (ROC 0.6439; 95% CI 0.5090 to 0.7788; P>0.05), becoming significant when 'ambiguous' medically managed PUL excluded from analysis (ROC 0.6538; 95% CI 0.5158 to 0.7918; P<0.05). Fibronectin may make a useful adjunct to future multiplex EP diagnostic tests

Household production and the household economy

A shorter version of this paper is to appear as an entry, titled "Household Production", in the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier Science (2001). ISBN 0734017006, Working paper 759.Household production is the production of goods and services by the members of a household, for their own consumption, using their own capital and their own unpaid labor. Goods and services produced by households for their own use include accommodation, meals, clean clothes, and child care.The process of household production involves the transformation of purchased intermediate commodities (for example, supermarket groceries and power-utility electricity) into final consumption commodities (meals and clean clothes). Households use their own capital (kitchen equipment, tables and chairs, kitchen and dining room space) and their own labor (hours spent in shopping, cooking, laundry and ironing). The total economic value added by households in household production has been aptly named Gross Household Product (GHP) (Eisner, 1989; Ironmonger, 199

Counting outputs, capital inputs and caring labor: Estimating gross household product

The estimation of Gross Household Product, the economic value added by the unpaid work and own capital of households outside the boundary of the System of National Accounts, should be addressed through household input-output satellite accounts which count household outputs, value them at market prices, and include an allowance for capital as a factor of production. This paper uses internationally comparable survey data to estimate the relative magnitudes of the gender division of the millions of hours of paid, unpaid and total work in twelve OECD countries, puts a dollar value on Gross Household Product in Australia, looks more closely at who provides care and nurture in households and suggests some urgent issues for attention.Gross Household Product, satellite accounts, unpaid household work, household capital, care and nurture of human capital,

Valuing Time: A Conference Overview

The article provides an overview of the development of the field of time use studies. It provides an intellectual history charting the various interests that have shaped the growing applications of this broad social indicator. Recent applications, reflected in this special issue, are (a) interpreting the meaning of leisure, time; (b) the social and environmental consequences of affluence; and (c) non-market work, parenting and balance between work and family. New approaches to trends in average leisure time have attempted to interpret the impact of social and technological change on the meaning of leisure. These approaches suggest that the 'economic emergence of women' rather than the 'IT revolution' has been the more influential trend and that being 'busy' may have replaced conspicuous idleness as the signifier of social status. These new forms of social organization in advanced societies have also attracted a great deal of research on children’s use of time, parenting and work-family balance. An important new application for time-use information has been in the study of 'diseases of affluence', the health consequences of increasing sedentary activities, and over-eating, the environmental consequences of consumerism, all of which leads to the need to reassess the economic significance of activities that occur beyond the market. A special feature of this article is an extensive review of approaches to valuation (in dollars and cents) of the outputs of unpaid (non-market) work. The article provides a framework for what activities it makes sense to value and the current ideas about 'best practice' methods of valuation