Households: Productivity and Consumption

Abstract

Households are production and consumption units contributing to national economies. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, households comprise all persons who occupy a housing unit. A concept in consumer behavior research is the household life cycle (HLC), a segmentation process that acknowledges that income and family composition and other factors alter consumption patterns. Digitization, the digital representation of diverse forms of information (such as sound, text, image, or voice) has deeply impacted the creation, support, use, and consumption of information by households. Sustainable households take into account ecology, economy, and social needs, present, and future.