Assessment of Resource Use in Turkish Household Sector and Labour Generation

The aim of the present study is trifid, namely to analyse the resource consumption in Turkish household sector in terms of exergy, to determine the exergy consumption per labour generated by household (exergy intensity of labour) and to compare that of various countries with Turkey. Due to economic and structural differences, equivalent of one work hour is different for different countries since it depends on economic and social parameters. To have an objective evaluation and comparison, it is necessary to have unified measure of labour which includes all the economic, societal and geographical parameters of countries. In this study -as a unified measure-labour is expressed in terms of exergy by means of applying “Extended exergy accounting (EEA)” method to Turkish Society. EEA is the most comprehensive and extensive methodology in the literature which enables to determine exergy equivalent of “immaterial” expenditures (capital, labour and environmental impact) and provides a clear vision of resource use of the society in terms of exergy. To achieve the above mentioned aim of the present study, Turkish economic and societal data is used to apply EEA methodology and determine exergetic equivalent of labor for Turkey. In EEA, the only product of household sector is labour which is supplied to all the sectors from household and a very important constituent of industrial development especially in developing countries like Turkey. Therefore, household resource consumption is strongly decisive on labour production and having a unified measure of labour in exergy terms is directive for the policy makers to see the effect of industrial development and consequential increase in “labour need” on sustainability. In the literature, EEA methodology is applied to some countries like: China, Norway, U.K. and Italy. A comparison of Turkish results with different countries also included in this study.