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If people, instead of raw growth,were the focus of our economic thinking,then non-market activities would assume their proper value in our understanding of the economy.Over the last fifteen years ,much research has been dedicated to raising our wareness of the economic value of non-market,unpaid work,which includes work done in households,free services between friends and neighbors, and community-organized voluntary activities.These studies point to the importance of unpaid work in the overall susteinance of people's livelihoods.

Preparation of food in the home,cleaning,ironing and mending clothing,healthcare,education and professional training are the main items of this voluntary work,which is by no means unproductive.In fact,these activities uphold the productivity of people and thus are vital for the market economy as well."If voluntary services disappeared ,either our standard of living and quality of lifes would decline dramatically,or the services would have to be replaced by pay," says Ronald Colman,director of GPI Atlantic.
The 1995 UNDP Human Development Report estimated that "$16 trillion{or 70 percent} of the $23 trillion of global output is performed in the non-monetary sector." And the Australian Bureau of Statisitics estimates the value of unpaid work at around $250 billion a year,approximately half of GDP ,as indicated in August 2001 press release.The Japanese Department of National Accounts of the Economic Planning Agency assessed the value of unpaid work in 1996 in Japan at 76 to 116 trillion Yen,or 15 to 23 percent of GDP .These reports make very visible an important but often ignored column of our Global balance sheets.Given the immense value of nonpaid work,it is clear that we must continue to strive for its integration into the total picture of our global economic thinking and planning.
In the US,the committee on National Statistics is designing non-market accounts for the United States.Its interim report{2003} has this to say about about indicators like GDP:"since their first construction for the United States by Simon Kuznets in the 1930s,there have been concerns that the accounts are incomplete and misleading because they omit such nonmarket activity as unpaid work,volunteer activities,the value of leisure time,and most investment in human capital." Developing versus developed economies.
Developing countries are so called because their formal market economy is weak and underdeveloped.Attention of policymakers is largely focused on the

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