Household Production and Consumption in Finland 2001

Housing and food: the two biggest production fields
According to Household Budget Surveys the biggest consumption expenditure
items in Finnish households are housing, food and transport. The Household
Satellite Account shows that people also put in a lot of work towards their
housing and food. The value of household production is highest in the
principal function of housing, where almost one-quarter (5 billion euros) of
net value added of 22 billion euros is created through housing services
produced by owner-occupiers. Other basic housing requirements, apart from
the dwelling itself, include furniture, household appliances and other capital
goods: the value of capital consumption is almost 5 billion euros. The value of
labour in the provision of meals and snacks is almost as high as in the
production of housing services; net value added here is 16.6 billion euros. The
share of capital consumption, on the other hand, is considerably lower at 672
million euros. At an aggregate level the other principal functions, i.e. clothing,
care and volunteer work, are all much smaller, but the situation in families
with small children is different.
Labour intensiveness is highest in care, purchases
of final products are highest in food
The structure of production varies across the different principal functions. On
average, labour accounts for 74 per cent of the value of output, which is the
same as in the service industries in general. The share of labour is highest in the
provision of care at over 90 per cent. The value of purchased care services
amounted to no more than 14 percentage points of the value of care produced
at home, as its share is reduced by day care services organised and subsidised
by the public sector. Parents’ allowances and home care allowances paid out
from the public purse have been taken into account in calculating the value of
care produced at home. Differences in subsidy mechanisms may complicate
the task of comparing production of care in different countries.
The share of intermediate consumption, i.e. raw materials and supplies
needed in production, is greatest in the principal functions of housing and
food. In housing services, intermediate consumption goods and services consist
in large part of rents, repairs and heating. In the provision of meals,
intermediate consumption goods and services include various ingredients as
well as the energy and water that are needed in preparing meals. High
intermediate product use may be an indication of the use of expensive or
highly processed ingredients, but on the other hand it may also signal that the
household does a lot of cooking and uses less ready-to-eat snacks and prepared
meals. Indeed it is necessary to look at the use of final consumption products
and intermediate consumption side by side. The ratio of the two varies in
different types of households. Persons under 45 spend more money on final
food products than on intermediate ones, whereas in pensioner households the
opposite is true. Families with children spend roughly the same amount of
money on intermediate consumption goods and services and final consumption
products.
National Consumer Research Centre Statistics Finland 69