Measures of unrecorded economic activities in fourteen countries.

Abstract

This background paper for the UNs 1995 Human Development Report presents time-use data from Australia Austria Bulgaria Canada Denmark Finland France Germany the UK Israel Italy the Netherlands Norway and the US to illustrate the economic magnitude of domestic activities excluded from the UN System of National Accounts (SNA). The first part of the paper 1) discusses the time-use methodology; 2) describes the tables that contain recent measurement data the tables that provide historical perspectives a cross-national comparison of Bulgaria and Finland and other analytical perspectives; and 3) presents conclusions about the misleading nature of labor statistics the difficulty in achieving cross-national comparability with current data use of the amount of personal time as an indicator of human development and socioeconomic policy. Part 2 which is concerned with monetary valuation 1) explains the methodology; 2) describes the tables that contain recent measurements those that provide historical perspectives and those that illustrate other perspectives; and 3) presents conclusions about extended production accounting cross-national comparability and standardized consumption as a possible indicator of human development. The paper then offers an agenda for the future of this new sector of economic accounting and conclusions based on the findings that the value of non-SNA production is at least half the value of gross development product that non-SNA production is gender-specific (with women working more than men) and that trends indicate a decrease in economic time spent and equalization of the impact of gender.