The Essence, Functions and Economic Behavior of Households

Abstract

The main aim of the publication is clarifying the provisions concerning the essence, functions, and economic behavior of households. The research was carried out taking into consideration the social and economic components of the studied institution, which can be both an economic agent and an institutional unit of the social organization of society. The production and consumer functions of households are suggested to be considered the basic (primary), performance of which is directed, first of all, to the provision of life activity, and the savings and reproductive functions – the derivative (secondary), which are directed at both the formation of conditions of economic security and the preservation (reproduction) along with development of such factor of production as labor. The number of the main economic functions of households has been supplemented by the cognitive-reflective and information-communication ones, the functional of which not only provides the process of finding the optimal strategy of economic behavior with the purpose of ensuring conditions of economic security, but also is an instrument of indirect influence on the economic behavior of households by the State.

Keywords

• economic behavior
• household
• household functions
• cognition
• reflexivity