Estimating the Economic Value of Elderly's Unpaid Work At Home and It's Contribution to GDP of Iran

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that the elderly do contribute to the GDP of Iran and to estimate the economic value of unpaid work of the elderly at home. The elderly’s work at home, are not compensated monetarily, consequently such contributions are not reflected at national accounting system and GDP. Considering the current trends in population pyramid and the shift toward higher ages, the neglect of this issue, might lead to formation of an unjustified and negative attitude towards the elderly and population aging in Iran. We have used the “Time Use Survey Data of Iran,” to estimate the economic value of elderly’s unpaid work among urban households for the period of 20082009. The results indicate that the economic value of unpaid work of the elderly in Iranian households amounts to 1.65 percent of GDP roughly equal to 55 billion Rials a year. A significant part of such economic value of the unpaid work of the elderly in Iran, consist of unpaid house work, which amounts to 51 billion Rials. 38 billion Rials of this is created by female and 13 billion Rials by the male elderly. Estimating the economic value of unpaid work by the elderly and its’ contribution to the GDP, highlights their contribution to the development of the society and can play an important role in advocating elderly sensitive policy making, and improvement of social and economic status of the elderly, particularly the female elderly in Iran.