In a country with large population of full-time house wives, national income

Step 1: Analyze the question The question asks how a large number of full-time housewives affects national income figures.

Step 2: The concept National income measures the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a year, but only those that are counted through the market or officially recorded. Services that are not paid for and not sold in the market are left out. These include:

• Housework such as cooking, cleaning and laundry
• Childcare and caring for the elderly at home
• Subsistence activities in the home that are not recorded

A full-time housewife provides valuable services, but she receives no wage and the services are not traded. They therefore never enter the national income accounts.

Step 3: Apply it to the options

• A. Wrong. Housewives' unpaid work is not counted, so national income is not composed of what they produce.
• B. Wrong. Leaving out their services lowers the figure. It does not raise it.
• C. Wrong. The statistics are not harder to calculate. The work is simply excluded.
• D. Correct. Because the value of unpaid household services is omitted, the national income figures understate the country's true output.

Step 4: Answer The correct option is D.

Exam tip: Remember the rule: "Unpaid and unrecorded means not counted, so national income is under-estimated." The same idea applies to subsistence farming that is not sold and to the informal sector. Whenever a JAMB question mentions housewives, DIY work or unrecorded activity, think under-estimation.