Household Economy

Household economy refers to the ways in which households generate, pool, allocate, and consume resources, combining paid work, unpaid domestic labor, informal production, transfers, and borrowing in order to meet their needs. The term goes back to the Greek oikos, the basis of economics. Karl Polanyi identified householding as a form of economic integration alongside reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange, and Alexander Chayanov analyzed the peasant household as a balance between labor and consumption. Gary Becker's new home economics treated the household as a unit producing goods through time and labor, a view contested by feminist economists. Marilyn Waring criticized national accounts for ignoring unpaid household production, and Ann Oakley, Silvia Federici, and Christine Delphy highlighted domestic labor as unpaid work supporting capitalism. Ray Pahl's study of work on the Isle of Sheppey examined household work strategies combining formal and informal activity, and Jan Pahl and Carolyn Vogler analyzed how money is managed within couples. Viviana Zelizer showed how households mark money with meaning. Economic crises, migration, and remittances reshape household strategies. Household economy remains central to research on gender, informal work, poverty, welfare, and development.