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Should housework be included in the GDP?

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. However, it doesn’t include a broad fraction of human labour. In SNA terminology, unpaid labor corresponds to the category of ‘own-account services.’ This includes activities such as childcare, cleaning, meal preparation, and care for the sick and elderly. All of those are excluded from GDP as they are repetitive actions, which are not contributing to actual production.

What is your opinion? Do you think GDP measurements should be changed?

Additional reading:

  1. https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2015/03/much-womens-work-unpaid-without-it-economy-would-crumble
  2. https://www.e-ir.info/2019/01/11/unpaid-work-and-the-governance-of-gdp-measurement/

By Dominika

Hi! I am Dominika and I am a high school student based in Spain but originally from Belarus. I have keen interests in economics, business, and finance. As I believe that economics and politics education plays an important role in one’s personality formation, I am really excited to be a part of the EconIR WEB Team!

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