[lbo-talk] Official Economic stats

[Max B. Sawicky]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> 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
> ___________________________________

Every intro econ text points out the omission of unpaid household labor 
from GDP
and the distinction between GDP and well-being,
and Chicago types pioneered the modeling of 'household production.'