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Glite Dictionary
incremental cost

incremental cost

1 4.9
The extra or less money needed to make one more product
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : costo incremental
  • The company analyzed the incremental cost of producing each additional widget to ensure profitability.
  • full incremental cost
  • incremental cost-effectiveness
  • average incremental costs

Examples

  • Current pumped hydrostorage technology adds an incremental cost of $40-$70/MWh of delivered energy.

    Blog text (25)

  • The long-term incremental costs of water supply and wastewater disposal may also be reduced.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Developed countries should fund the full agreed incremental cost of any project addressing climate change under the Framework Convention's terms.

    Academic text (1998)

  • In a typical program, utility incentives to customers cover only a portion of direct incremental costs.

    Academic text (1992)

  • For transportation, incremental performance of advanced technologies improved by 33%, and incremental costs were 50% lower than in the reference case.

    Academic text (1999)

  • For retrofit applications, this failure could lead to significant underestimates of the true incremental cost of conservation measures.

    Academic text (1992)

  • The incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year, based on the SF-6D, was 7,440 (approximately US$ 11,300).

    Academic text (2015)

  • Beigi et al. found that vaccinating compared to not vaccinating pregnant women resulted in an incremental cost of $7,718 USD per QALY.

    Academic text (2016)

  • Avritscher et al. demonstrated that vaccinating working-age cancer patients compared to no vaccination resulted in an incremental cost of $224 USD per QALY 34.

    Academic text (2016)

  • The primary outcome of the analysis was the modeled incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER), reported as Euros per quality-adjusted life-year (/QALY) gained.

    Academic text (2016)

Synonyms

marginal cost
vsincremental cost
  • Specialized
4 4.8

The extra cost to make one more item

notes both increases and decreases in total cost for one unit change
differential cost
vsincremental cost
  • Specialized
6.9

The change in total cost when you produce one more or one less item

is the same meaning but expressed as the amount of that change

Surface Forms

incremental cost singular
incremental costs plural

Morphology

incremental + cost

The phrase is a straightforward compositional combination of 'incremental' (relating to an increase/addition) + 'cost' (monetary amount), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to the additional cost associated with one more (or one fewer) unit. Although it is a technical term in economics, the meaning directly follows from the constituents and has clear equivalents in other languages, making it easily understandable.

Etymology

Incremental cost comes from the simple image of paying for one small extra step. Imagine a shop making one more cup: the money needed for just that 'one more' cup is the incremental cost. So, it means the extra money you spend or save when you make one more or one fewer item.