Household Production and Consumption in Finland 2001

Volunteer work
As the name implies, volunteer work consists primarily of labour. No
intermediate consumption is allocated to this principal function because
ordinarily the recipient will cover the immediate costs incurred from volunteer
work. Travel and transportation costs, on the other hand, have been allocated
to volunteer work as reported in the Time Use Survey
Figure 10. Volunteer work, value and structure
Travel, transportation
and services
27%
Volunteer work,
5.35 billion euros
Labour
73%
Travel and services related to unpaid work
It is interesting, finally, to look at shopping, services and travel that are related
to housework. They account for a considerable proportion of production in all
principal functions. This highlights the dependence of household production
on market production as well as the amount of time and money that have to be
invested in this interaction. Shopping, services and travel related to unpaid
work account for one-fifth of total non-SNA household production. In Figure
11, shopping and services are presented separately from related travel, even
though the notion of “shopping” is usually understood as comprising travel to
the shops as well. Travel time to the shops accounts for over one-half of all
travel, while volunteer work, the transportation of children and adults and the
vehicle maintenance account for the other half.
The value of travel and transportation related to unpaid work is 8.5 billion
euros, of which labour accounts for almost 80 per cent. According to the Time
Use Survey housework related travel accounts for about one-third of total
travel time. One-third of the costs from running a car and other vehicles (fuel,
maintenance and service costs), the consumption of fixed capital and vehicle
tax are also allocated to unpaid work travel.
44 Statistics Finland National Consumer Research Centre