law of diminishing returns
American Heritage Dictionary:
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law of diminishing returns
n.
The tendency for a continuing application of effort or skill toward a particular project or goal to decline in effectiveness after a certain level of result has been achieved.
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law of diminishing returns
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
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law of diminishing returns
Economic law stating that if one input used in the manufacture of a product is increased while all other inputs remain fixed, a point will eventually be reached at which the input yields progressively smaller increases in output. For example, a farmer will find that a certain number of farm labourers will yield the maximum output per worker. If that number is exceeded, the output per worker will fall.
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Barron's Business Dictionary:
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law of diminishing returns
“rule” of economics that states that beyond a certain production level, productivity increases at a decreasing rate.
See also diminishing returns.
See also diminishing returns.
| Lavish or Extravagant Expense, Launder, Launch | |
| Law of Increasing Costs, Law of Large Numbers, Law of Supply and Demand |
Oxford Dictionary of Geography:
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law of diminishing returns
The principle that further inputs into a system produce ever lower increases in outputs. Any extra input will not produce an equal or worthwhile return. Thus, while early applications of fertilizer may increase yields, further applications will not see a corresponding rise in output, and even further applications may actually damage the crop, as excessive fertilizer can burn plant tissue.
Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine:
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law of diminishing returns
A law that states that improvements in sporting skills are quite pronounced in the early stages of skill acquisition, but then diminish as an athlete reaches a higher level of performance. See also arrested progress.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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law of diminishing returns
diminishing returns, law of, in economics, law stating that if one factor of production is increased while the others remain constant, the overall returns will relatively decrease after a certain point. Thus, for example, if more and more laborers are added to harvest a wheat field, at some point each additional laborer will add relatively less output than his predecessor did, simply because he has less and less of the fixed amount of land to work with. The principle, first thought to apply only to agriculture, was later accepted as an economic law underlying all productive enterprise. The point at which the law begins to operate is difficult to ascertain, as it varies with improved production technique and other factors. Anticipated by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and implied by Thomas Malthus in his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), the law first came under examination during the discussions in England on free trade and the corn laws. It is also called the law of decreasing returns and the law of variable proportions.
Bibliography
See W. J. Spillman and E. Lang, The Law of Diminishing Returns (1924).
Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: Economics:
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law of diminishing returns
An economic law propounded by David Ricardo, also called the law of diminishing marginal returns. It expresses a relationship between input and output, stating that adding units of any one input (labor, capital, etc.) to fixed amounts of the others will yield successively smaller increments of output.
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categories related to 'law of diminishing returns'
- Economics and Economic Theory - law of diminishing returns: diminishing returns
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Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
Barron's Business Dictionary
Dictionary of Business Terms. Copyright © 2007 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Dictionary of Geography
A Dictionary of Geography. Copyright © Susan Mayhew 1992, 1997, 2004. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine
The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine. Copyright © Michael Kent 1998, 2006, 2007. All rights reserved.
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Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
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Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: Economics
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Read more
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