Question

An employment situation where the marginal productivity of agricultural labour is zero is known as:

• A. Seasonal unemployment
• B. Cyclical unemployment
• C. Disguised unemployment
• D. Disguised employment

Hint:

The worker is present and occupied every day, but adds nothing extra to total output, that hidden zero contribution is the clue.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

A quick way to work through this is to test each option against the exact condition given: marginal productivity of labour equal to zero.

1. Seasonal unemployment: this describes workers with literally no job to do in certain months, for instance between crop cycles. The question describes someone still working on the land, not idle for part of the year, so this does not match.
2. Cyclical unemployment: this rises and falls with the broader business cycle, factory layoffs during a downturn being the classic example, and has no direct link to a fixed marginal product condition in farming.
3. Disguised unemployment: this is the general, broader label for the phenomenon of too many people crowding onto too little agricultural land, so that some of them are not really needed. It is close, but the question asks for the precise technical name of the MPL equals zero condition for an individual worker, not the general phenomenon.
4. Disguised employment: this names the exact state the question describes, a worker who is formally employed and physically present, yet whose marginal contribution to output is zero, meaning the job itself disguises what is effectively redundant labour.

Matching the precise wording of the question, marginal productivity is exactly zero, to the option that names that specific individual-level condition points to disguised employment, confirming option D.