Home-improvement - what is it? Types, structure, functions of the household

Household, in accordance with modern theoretical approaches, which are in economic science, is one of the key socio-economic actors. The dynamics of their formation largely determines the efficiency of the state's economy, the development of civil society. What is a household? What subjects can it represent?

What is a household?

Household is, in accordance with the definition widely used in the scientific community, an institutional social unit, which consists of a relatively small group of citizens who live together, to some extent combining their incomes and resources, as well as jointly consuming a number of goods and services.

As a rule, households are maintained by families. Households can be not only consumers of goods and services, but also their producers - for example, if their subjects carry out entrepreneurial activities.

There is one more interpretation of the term in question. It is formed by economists. In accordance with it, a household is a group of people who make collective economic decisions. For example, related to the purchase of goods, the use of services or their production, if the household members are engaged in entrepreneurial activities.

The main features of the household

There is a widespread view that the household is a social group characterized by the following main features:

- Isolation (both legal and factual),

- accommodation of participants in the territory of one residential building or a group of those located nearby,

- the regularity of social communications - suggesting that the participants of the household interact with different degrees of intensity, communicate with each other.

As we noted above, households are most often formed by families. But it is not always the case. Possible household subjects - firms, public organizations, churches, non-profit structures, political parties. All of them, one way or another, will correspond to the main features of the household that we examined above.

Households perform a number of economic functions. Let's study them.

Economic functions of households

The main functions of households in terms of the economy are:

- distribution of capital;

- control over the formation of individual consumer preferences;

- investment of accumulated capital.

Of course, there are a number of other significant economic functions of households. Thus, the relevant social groups form a market demand - buying goods and services produced by other economic actors. Households, as we noted above, can themselves produce various products and services. It can be noted that economic relations can arise between individual household members. This may be due to various legal relationships - debt, production, labor.

In the corresponding social group, local economic roles associated with capital management can be formed. Thus, the financial household is being conducted. This social group can be an independent economic entity that interacts with other households, with individual citizens of their country, with state bodies, commercial banks, various types of enterprises, with non-state structures, with foreign citizens and organizations.

We will study the basic economic functions of households - distribution, control and investment, in more detail.

Distributive economic function of households

One of the key economic functions of households is the distribution of financial resources. Those or other household members earning a large amount of money, one way or another, share them with others. In families - as a rule, free of charge and sufficiently active. In more disparate social groups, such a distribution is a rarity.

Therefore, the larger the household, the more pronounced is the distribution of capital in it. This function plays a positive role from the point of view of the entire macroeconomic system, since the availability of capital for people with different needs stimulates the production of goods and the provision of services in the relevant areas. If money were concentrated in a small number of people, it would facilitate the development of a smaller number of industries - those that can meet the needs of a particular citizen.

Consumption of households generates demand, as a rule, for a much wider range of goods and services.

Control economic function of households

The next significant function of households is the control one. Its specificity lies in managing the needs of each of the participants in the relevant social group.

The fact is that the income of households, even when it comes to associations within the same city, can vary greatly. And if one level of expenditure is acceptable for the representatives of one social group, the participants in the other household based on the disposable income may not be able to count on the same consumption structure. In this regard, the consumer aspirations of individual households may be subject to control - in order to optimize the structure of their expenditures.

The investment function of households

The next most important function of households is investment. Household finance can be used to support the activities of a wide variety of economic actors. At the same time, these communications can be observed already at the level of everyday expenses of participants in the relevant social group - when shopping in the store, using various services. Household expenses actually become investments in businesses that supply goods or services. In addition, financial investments of households can be represented by bank deposits, participation in stock trading, private investment support of any projects.

The efficiency of the financial household management largely depends on the quality of management of its local budget. Let's study this aspect in more detail.

Household Budget

We noted above that the household is an independent economic entity. Thus, household finances are autonomous in terms of priorities in their distribution, despite the fact that their receipt largely depends on the actions of other entities with which the relevant social group communicates.

The household budget, like a financial plan formed by a state or an enterprise, consists of the expected revenues and expenses. Its distinctive feature is that when compiling it, as a rule, actual, not calculated individual needs of each of the household participants are taken into account. For someone, one volume of goods and services is needed, for another - completely different. In turn, budgets within larger social institutions can be compiled on the basis of just the same from the calculated indicators, which are not always combined with the real individual needs of a particular citizen. This is the advantage of budgeting at the level of the local household, in the ability to take into account the consumer preferences of all its participants.

Of course, in many cases the concept of "budget" in the household is considered informally. In principle, this is a rarity, when one of the family undertakes to compile a real income and expenditure plan reflected in a separate document. Although, when it really is necessary, many people are engaged in this work - using, for example, specialized types of software, mobile applications, and it turns out very effectively.

But, regardless of how the household budget is drawn up, its main feature remains - orientation to the individual needs structure. It often does not matter how much a particular household member earns. This is another feature of the economic role of the respective social groups, when the source of income and the consumer can not have mutual rights and obligations. But, it should be noted that such a specific relationship is more typical for family households and is not very common in corporate legal relations.

What are the types of households

We will study what kind of households are there. The classification of the corresponding social groups is based on the number of subjects. So, households can be single or group. The first are formed by individual citizens or families. The second - several groups of people.

Other common household classification criteria are:

- territorial affiliation (it is intended to correlate the location of the relevant social group with the city, region, state);

- Solvency (in this sense, households can have a high, medium or low income);

- property characteristics (determined on the basis of the type of housing and property owned by the household participants).

Researchers can define other criteria-related, for example, to the social status of household members, the labor potential of the relevant social group, the level of education and qualifications of citizens that enter the household.

Household structure

We will study what the structure of the household is. This term can be understood as:

- the composition of the household;

- distribution of functional roles in the relevant social group.

Concerning the composition of the household: it can correspond to the family status of each of its participants. It can be parents and their children, other relatives. Regarding the functional roles in the household: those can be represented by participants who form capital, working, developing business, distributing household incomes and expenditures, making decisions in terms of managing the resources available in the household - real estate, household tools, playing a passive economic role within the household , But active - in cooperation with other business entities.

Depending on the size of the household, the socio-economic characteristics of other social groups of the appropriate type that have developed in a particular city or region, the functional roles of household participants can be represented in a much broader spectrum.

Households and the state

In the environment of researchers there was an ambiguous assessment of the role of the state in the formation of households. On the one hand, the corresponding social group in the general case is independent of the activity of any state structures. On the other hand, the state can play a crucial role in terms of maintaining the sustainability of households.

First of all, in the economic sense. Here it can be talked about giving working members of the household the opportunity to earn in the financial system of the state - for example, by employment in budget structures, civil service, and providing direct assistance to citizens in the form of transfers of funds in the form of grants, benefits, distribution for the benefit of those Or other subjects of households of targeted support measures.

In turn, the household performs important functions for the state, both social and economic. As we noted above, the corresponding associations are formed, as a rule, by families whose education is the most important factor in the development of civil society. Households form demand in many segments of the economy - this contributes to improving the economic stability of the state, increasing its GDP.

Household income

We will study what household income can generate. The main sources of capital to be distributed in the relevant social groups are:

- salary;

- compensation in the framework of civil legal relations;

- entrepreneurial activity;

- lease of certain assets;

- receipt of dividends as a result of investments in the assets of certain enterprises;

- profit extraction through securities trading;

- use of natural resources;

- Receiving bank interest on deposits.

Individual household members can extract one or more of the listed types of income. As a rule, the corresponding cash receipts are reduced by the amount of mandatory payments - in the form of taxes, commissions, other deductions, stipulated by the legislation and contract terms.

Household expenses

Expenses, in turn, for households can be represented by:

- costs associated with the content of available resources (for example, payment of utilities, if it comes to real estate);

- with the acquisition of basic types of goods - food, household chemicals, electronics;

- with the use of everyday services - transport, banking, communication;

- long-term acquisitions - purchase of new real estate, cars and other equipment.

Household expenses can be supplemented by the use of legal, medical, educational services - based on the needs structure that is formed in a particular social group. Let us consider this aspect in more detail.

The structure of needs within the household

Households are independent economic entities, whose composition, however, can be represented by participants with different needs. For someone it's enough to purchase basic goods and services, for others you need to turn to additional services, purchase more expensive products.

The main factor determining the structure of needs in the relevant social groups is the disposable income of households. The more it is and the more actively its distribution is carried out, the more likely is the increase in the personal inquiries of household members in terms of consumer preferences. In some cases, they can be replaced by social priorities. For example, it may be preferable for a person to spend available money not for the purchase of an expensive product, but for sponsoring financial support to other people or organizations. In many respects, the appearance of such preferences depends on such factors as the level of education, upbringing of a particular person, the circle of his communication.

Factors of household formation

Let's consider now, under the influence of what factors the household can be formed. Above, we studied the main types of households, the criteria for their classification. Each of them will correspond to a separate group of factors in question. So, if it is a single household, most likely, it will be represented by a separate family. Factors of its formation are, as is known, human relationships. People come together, create families and begin to lead a common household. The economic factor in this case can play an important role, but it, as a rule, is of secondary importance.

In turn, the formation of group households can be primarily due to economic necessity. Social groups of the appropriate type presuppose the unification of several families in a common household - because in such a format each of them will be much easier to realize their needs, optimize the structure of expenditures.

The territorial affiliation of potential household members, the level of their incomes and the types of property they have - can also play a significant role in the formation of the associations under consideration. So, for example, in conditions of the open highlands of the Far North, indigenous peoples living in the respective territories, with relatively low incomes and not the most liquid property, it will probably make sense to unite in households.

Summary

A household is a socioeconomic unit that plays a crucial role in the development of society and the state. Uniting in households, people contribute to increasing the intensity of mutual communications, more efficient distribution of capital, the formation of an optimal structure of consumer preferences in terms of disposable income.

Household subjects are usually families. But it is quite possible to form appropriate social groups and organizations. The structure of the household can be determined by its composition and distribution of functions among the participants, depends on the economic and cultural characteristics of the community within which the appropriate type of social group is formed.