Household Production and Consumption in Finland 2001

Foreword
The national accounts are a comprehensive set of statistics that provide an
overview of the size and development of the economy. Their availability is a
crucial issue for economic analysis. Since Finland joined the European Union
in 1995, the importance of national accounts has further increased because of
needs of comparability of economic data on different countries.
In the national accounts, statistics on production, income formation and
income expenditure are compiled separately for different sectors, one of which
is the household sector. The household sector has a dual role in the national
accounts. On the one hand households have a consumer role in that they
purchase goods produced in the market. On the other hand, households
provide a significant share of goods and services produced in the economy.
Households engage in activities that create added value and that generate
welfare. However, only part of this work is included in the national accounts.
For decades now national and international experts have debated the
possibility of measuring household production in its entirety and showing the
results in the same accounting framework with other production. Extended
national accounts that incorporate household production could help to give a
more comprehensive picture of the interplay and interaction between different
sectors and also show what kind of shifts in economic activity occur between
the sectors. Furthermore, they could improve the comparability of national
economies both over time and between different countries. These are some of
the key aims of the proposed Household Satellite Account.
The Household Satellite Account has been developed on the basis of the
method discussion that has been going on within Eurostat (Statistical Office of
the European Communities). Finnish experts have made a valuable
contribution to this discussion: among them are Eeva Hamunen and Iiris
Niemi from Statistics Finland and Johanna Varjonen from the National
Consumer Research Centre, who have been closely involved in compiling the
present report. A number of other experts from these two organisations have
also contributed to the development of the national satellite account at hand.
The enthusiasm and excellent cooperation of all the people involved has made
possible this pioneering project and given it access to extensive datasets and
interpretations of those data. Statistics Finland and the National Consumer
Research Centre have been pleased to have the country’s leading experts and
partners on the project steering group; they have all shown great commitment
to the work of this group. Not only was the steering group a huge source of
inspiration to the research team, but it also provided intelligent advice and
directions on where it should head with its work.
National Consumer Research Centre Statistics Finland 3