law of diminishing returns

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‘rule' of economics that states that beyond a certain production level, productivity increases at a decreasing rate. See also 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.

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.

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.