Household Production and Consumption in Finland 2001

8 Discussion ofthe results and needs
for further research
8.1 Interplay oftime and money in household
services
The results produced by the Household Satellite Account are of a new kind, in
two respects. First, the account produces quantitative information on how
households combine time and money in their productive activities. Secondly,
it produces monetary estimates for the value of household production in
different types of households and in different principal functions.
When households make decisions on how to obtain the services they need
or that make their everyday life easier, time and money are to some extent
regarded as substitutes for one another. In microeconomics, researchers have
sought to explain the use of time and money by means of econometric models,
inspired by Becker’s theory of time use allocation. The alternative use of time
and money is approached not only as a resource issue, but also as a value issue
that reflects households’ priorities and decision-making. The models examine
decision-making situations in individual activities.
The statistics compiled in the present Satellite Account describe the
monetary value of the goods and services produced by all the households in the
country for their own use. Its aim is not to explain why money and labour are
combined in certain ways, but to describe how they were combined in 2001.
In order to give more depth to the picture, production is divided into principal
functions. Accounts are produced separately for ten different types of
households, which represent different life-stages and family structures. The
value of production is calculated on the basis of national accounting rules
applying the input method: the accounts show the share of labour, the
consumption of fixed capital, raw materials and other intermediate
consumption and gross fixed capital formation separately. Where possible the
value of goods and services substituting household production, i.e. purchased
final consumption products, is indicated separately alongside the value of own
production. The figures provide a clear picture of how different types of
households spend their time (i.e. labour) and money when purchasing or
producing goods and services.
68 Statistics Finland National Consumer Research Centre