This paper focusses on macroeconomic approaches to the measurement of non‐market household work or production in industrialised countries. It details the variety of parameters involved, the choice of which depends on the specific aim pursued by authors. A review of different aims pursued, parameters chosen, concepts used, alternative methods applied, and available statistical data is presented and results of evaluations are then compared. The money value of household activities is given in percentage of GNP and comparisons are made within the framework of similar approaches. Under this condition, results are remarkably consistent. At the same time, the paper shows how sensitive results are to the method used; it also puts emphasis on the lack of adequate statistical data which may be held responsible for a gap between the theoretical model of evaluation and its practical implementation. In the present state of knowledge, no definite assertion can be made on the time trend of household work and its money value as percentage of GNP or national income. The paper stresses the importance availability of data on the volume and nature of non‐market household output would have for future research on the economic contribution of households in industrialised as well as in developing countries. Such data permitting an output approach to measurement would lead to better understanding of the interrelation between market and household sectors and would therefore improve economic analysis and forecasting. Adequate statistical data could possibly be collected through a process similar to that used for time use data in national surveys.

[fre] Les français passent davantage de temps à « faire le ménage » qu'à « gagner leur vie » : le travail domestique occupe environ 48 milliards d'heures chaque année tandis que 41 milliards seulement sont consacrés au travail professionnel. Peut-on évaluer ce travail domestique autrement que par le temps passé à l'effectuer? Attribuer une valeur monétaire à ce travail non rémunéré, n'est- ce pas le dénaturer? La question, posée depuis longtemps, a connu un regain d'intérêt dans les années récentes. Cet article, qui est le résumé d'une étude publiée dans Archives et documents, prend le problème d'un point de vue plutôt macroéconomique et cherche ce que vaudrait le travail domestique par comparaison avec le produit intérieur brut. On trouve que les activités ménagères contribueraient à la valeur du PIB marchand pour un tiers ou pour les trois-quarts, selon la méthode choisie. Si l'éventail est large, la proportion est dans tous les cas considérable. [eng] Is it possible to Mesure Household Labor ? - The French devote more time to housework than to making a living; household labor absorbs approximately 48 billions hours per year whereas only 41 billions hours are devoted to market labor. Is it possible to evaluate household labor in any terms other than the hours devoted to it? Is it a distortion to ascribe a monetary value to this non-remunerated labor? This last age-old question has found renewel interest in recent years. This article takes up the problem from a rather macroeconomic standpoint and examines the possible value of household work in relation to the gross domestic product. We find that household activities contribute about one-third to three-quarters of GDP, depending on the method of measurement. Though the range of uncertainty is considerable, the proportion is high in all cases. [spa] ¿ Es factible medir las labores caseras ? - Los Franceses dedican mas tiempo a las labores caseras que a ganarse la vida : las labores caseras ocupan aproximadamente 48 mil millones de horas al ano mientras que 41 mil millones de horas tan solo estan dedicadas al trabajo profesional. ¿ Es factible valorar estas labores caseras de otra manera que por el tiempo que se les dedica? Si se atribuye un valor monetario a dicho trabajo no remunerado ;no se le desvirtuará? La interrogante, planteada desde hace tiempo, despertó ûltimamente un nuevo interés. Este artículo, el que resena un estudio publicado en Archives et documents, plantea el problema desde un punto de vista mas pronto macroeconómico y investiga acerca de lo que valdrían las labores caseras con relación al producto interior bruto. Se desprende de ello que las actividades caseras contribuirían al valor del PIB mercante por un tercio o tres cuartos segun el método elegido. Si la espiral es amplia, la proporción, en todo caso, se revela de consideración.

Household non‐market production is not observed directly and therefore not known. This paper develops a methodological approach to the description of household production functions based on the assumption that household non‐market production and household final consumption (as defined in National Accounts) are interdependent. What households produce and the way they produce depends to a large extent on what they may acquire on the market. Empirical data is provided both by the French National Accounts and Household Surveys. The study presents a nomenclature of household output by type of product derived from the nomenclature of household non‐market productive activities, to which final consumption products as described in the National Accounting nomenclatures are matched. Final consumption commodities are classified according to the role they play in household non‐market productive processes, and subdivided into three categories: “substitute products” which save households from producing similar commodities in the home; “complementary products” which are not produced by households, but serve to produce other goods and services; “pure final consumption products” which are neither produced by households nor serve in any further productive process before being actually consumed in the proper sense of the term. The combination of monetary and non‐monetary indicators provides information on household modes of production and on trends of output over the past 15 years. The method is implemented here for all households, in a global approach. It may, nonetheless, be adapted and serve to study disparities among households stemming from their characteristics, or to estimate the implicit price at which household members value the use of their time; it may also be used to assess the impact of market output on the nature of household non‐market production. National Accounts supply aggregate data on household final consumption, while time budget surveys constitute the main source of information on their activities. The method used in this study consists of matching the official nomenclatures used to structure the two sets of data, each designed to describe different aspects of one and the same economic unit. To be more precise, this study attempts to establish a correspondence between the nomenclature of activities and products (N.A.P.) [1] used in the French National Accounting System and the nomenclature of activities used in the French Time Budget Survey [2]. This matching procedure aims at showing up the substitutability or complementarity effects between household non‐market production and output of the market sector.1 The assumption of interdependence between households' final consumption (as defined in National Accounts) and their non‐market production leads to a classification of commodities acquired on the market into three categories: “substitute products”, which the household purchases rather than producing them itself; “complementary products”, which the household uses in order to produce other goods; and finally, “...