Household Production and Consumption in Finland 2001

8.2 Reliability ofresults
The reliability of the results reported here can be assessed against both the
method and the datasets used. The value of household production has been
determined using the input method, where the value of output is calculated as
the sum of production costs. The most critical point is the determination of
the amount and value of labour. In this Satellite Account the amount of labour
is determined on the basis of the Time Use Survey. The figures are based on
time spent in primary activities; secondary, simultaneous activities have not
been included because there has not yet been enough discussion about how
they should be defined and valued. Another reason for the exclusion of
secondary activities is that the reported figures tend to vary widely, and the
results of the Time Use Survey have not been considered sufficiently reliable.
The value of unpaid work depends also on the wage level applied in
valuation. For the present purposes we have used the gross wage of a generalist
housekeeper/home helper, including holiday compensation. The wage is 9.99
euros per hour. Other options would have been net wage and gross wage
including employer contributions. Calculations based on these three different
wage concepts are shown in Appendix 4. Instead of the wage of a generalist, it
would be possible to use the wage of other employees with specialist skills.
Producers of services compensating unpaid work include cooks, childminders,
cleaners, office clerks, housekeepers, drivers, decorators, interior designers,
janitors, etc. The average wage level of specialist employees is pretty close to
that of the housekeeper, so it is unlikely that this change would have had very
much impact on the results. By contrast the difference between net and gross
wages is considerably bigger.
Furthermore, the reliability of these results can be weighed against the
reliability of the data used as well as against their applicability to the
measurement of household production. The datasets used here were Statistics
Finland’s Time Use Survey, the Household Budget Survey and national
accounts data. The time use data were from 1999–2000; for the present
purposes we have consulted the data at household level (Appendix 1). A more
detailed account of how these data were compiled is given in Appendix 2 of
the report on Time Use in Families (Väisänen 2005; in Finnish). The
Household Budget Survey is from 2001–2002. A more detailed description of
this dataset and the methods employed is provided in Statistics Finland’s
quality statement (Statistics Finland 2004).
The samples of all these datasets were considered adequate for purposes of
classifying households into different types. Single-parent households were kept
intact as a single category, without dividing them into groups according to the
age of the youngest child. This was for reasons of ensuring an adequate sample
size.
National Consumer Research Centre Statistics Finland 71