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Figure 4.3Economic value of unpaid care and domestic work and select areas of economic activity as a percentage of GDP, 2013In Mexico, the economic value of unpaid care and domestic work is greater than mining, construction, andtransportation and storage combinedPercentage of GDP21 17 16 11 7 7 6Unpaid careand domestic workManufacturing Commerce Real estate Mining Construction Transportationand storageSource: INEGI 2014.Note: Unpaid care and domestic work includes care and support, cleaning and household maintenance, cleaning and care of clothing and shoes, food preparation, shopping and householdmanagement, help to other households and volunteer work. See Box 2.5 for definitions.Exclusion of unpaid work biases economicplanningNot all unpaid work involves the care of others. In manycountries, time spent gathering fuel or carrying waterconstitutes a sizeable time burden for women (see Box2.5). 30 Public investments in basic infrastructure, such asaccessible water taps, could greatly reduce the amount oftime spent in these activities (see Chapters 2 and 3). This,in turn, can have a positive impact on women’s labourforce participation, their earnings from paid employmentand their economic empowerment—yet these benefits ofimproved infrastructure are rarely considered. 31The exclusion of the value of unpaid work from the nationalaccounts biases estimates of the total level of economicactivity as captured by GDP downward (as indicated inFigure 4.2). At the same time, the exclusion of non-marketactivities is thought to bias estimates of the growth ofeconomic activities upward. 32 This is because the value ofunpaid household production grows more slowly over timethan the market value of those goods and services that areincluded in standard GDP calculations. Similar biases affectthe accounting for women’s labour in GDP and growthstatistics. When women enter the labour force in increasednumbers, GDP goes up by definition, while any reductionin the value of unpaid work in household production thatensues is not accounted for and so is ‘hidden’. 33These gender issues in economic accounting have directpolicy consequences—for example, when the efficiencyof budget allocations is evaluated. ‘Savings’ made fromcutting back on government funding of public servicesoften increase demands on unpaid care and domesticwork. Because these hidden costs are not recognized ineconomic planning, this can create the illusion of efficiencygains when in fact costs are being transferred from thepublic sector to the private sphere. 34 In the health sector,for example, efficiency may seem to increase when thetime that patients spend in the hospital decreases andas a result the cost of providing treatment per patientappears to drop. But cuts to public health expenditure canhave substantial and unrecognized knock-on effects forcaregivers in households, who may be forced to take timeoff paid work to care for a sick family member. This islikely to have disproportionate impacts on women as theprimary caregivers.201