On Dec 16, 2008, at 8:05 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> Take for example the concept of the boundaries of production used in
> national accounting, which in principle consists of all market
> transactions. However, as feminist critiques of that concepts
> pointed out, it leaves out a substantial chunk of productive
> activities, namely those carried out within the household sector or
> by unpaid labor (the latter is a bit more complicated and depends on
> the instituional setting of that labor) - both done predominantly by
> women. So the national accounts statisticians who adhere to the
> 1993 SNA dutifuly perform their jobs as any good public servants
> would do, but the methodology they use undercounts certain types of
> productive activities, namely those performed by women.
This is true, but market activity is regulated and measured by the exchange of money, while household activity is regulated by a mix of affection and coercion. They're really not comparable.
Doug