Abstract:
People's quality of life depends on the social relationships of their everyday lives and the technological choices that affect them. These features are readily described within the framework of social accounting, provided that relevant categories of households, workers, and economic activities are used. The taxonomies can be devised in ways that reveal systematic differences in the roles of different social groups (for example, those in the informal or formal economy; women or men) and the associated economic and social outcomes. The techniques of structural economics can then be used to explore their implications for the roles and outcomes of women in particular of alternative scenarios about economic development.