Household production in Singapore : a study of the household economy for social accounting purposes

Abstract

Output produced by households is not recorded in a country’s Gross National Product

(GNP). This is because household production of goods and services do not generate an

income by way of marketability and hence it is difficult to measure its value. On the other

hand, the market consumption of goods by the household is already included in GNP. This

study attempts to estimate the value of household production using economic valuation

methods. It recognises that the inputs and outputs of household production are not

homogenous, giving reason to estimate the value of different household production

activities using different methods of valuation. In doing so, this study utilises different

replacement cost methods to estimate the values of Market replaceable Household

Production (MHP) and Near-Market replaceable Household Production (NMHP). While

household production is not recorded, it is in no way negligible and its value would provide

a more complete GNP estimation.

Keywords: Household production, Gross National Product, Valuation, Replacement cost,

Market replaceable, Near-Market replaceable