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The Household Electricity Approach to measuring the size of the underground economy or black market of a country exploits the presumed relationship between household electrical consumption and a country's GDP. It assumes that undeclared economic activity still needs to use resources, such as electricity, to function. Since electricity consumption is generally well known it can be used as an indicator of economic activity that is not otherwise declared. The household electricity approach was developed by Maria Lacko as a method to determine the size of the hidden economy in a country. Lacko’s primary focus within this approach was directed at the relationship between the household electrical consumption and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country using regression analysis. Her research in this area was particularly focused on developing methodologies that would help to more accurately determine the prevalence of the hidden economy in transitionary countries such as the former Soviet bloc countries. ==History== Lacko’s work received its basis from two other works. The first of these works, developed in 1995, is the method of Dobozi and Pohl. These researchers had suggested that aggregate economic activity and electrical power consumption were closely related (Lacko 2000, p. 347). In fact, from their observations, electrical consumption and GDP elasticity were close to a one to one ratio (Lacko 1999, p. 143). This was true in the case of countries under a market economy; however, it did not appear to be the case for former Soviet bloc countries. The works of Daniel Kaufman and Aleksandr Kaliberda followed a similar path as Istvan Dobozi and Gerhard Pohl's work. Kaufman and Kaliberda developed a method that considered the growth rate of the formal market's GDP and the growth of electrical consumption (Lacko 2000, p. 123). It was evident, as noted by Dobozi and Pohl, that change within the GDP resulted in lockstep changes with electrical consumption for market economies; however, Kaufman and Kaliberda also noted that the former Soviet bloc countries did not seem to maintain this consistency. The researchers suggested that the transitionary nature of these countries' economic development created a break in the consistency between GDP and electrical consumption (Lacko 2000, p. 350). Kaufman and Kaliberda adapted their approach to allow for the calculation of this inconsistency between electrical activity and GDP. Lacko disagreed with the previous methods use of aggregate electrical consumption as the primary source of calculations to determine the extent of the hidden economy (Lacko 1999, p. 164). Additionally, Lacko expressed concerns with the assumption of a constant electrical intensification (Lacko 1999, p. 164). The household electricity approach was developed as an alternative (Lacko 1999, pp. 142–143). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Household electricity approach」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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