marginal cost
4
4.8
- noun
- /ˈmɑrdʒɪnəl kɔst/
- Specialized
:
costo marginal
- To maximize profits, businesses often analyze the marginal cost of producing one more item to determine pricing strategies.
- marginal cost pricing
- short-run marginal cost
- marginal cost of electricity
So one standard story about algorithms is to say algorithms have a fixed cost plus a marginal cost.
- So one standard story about algorithms is to say algorithms have a fixed cost plus a marginal cost.
- Realistically, the actual marginal cost of operating that plane in my opinion would probably have been closer to two.
- And as it got longer in evolution, the marginal cost of each successive increment in the detour was slight.
Examples
-
Do taxpayers regard deficit finance as a means of reducing the marginal cost to them of public spending?
Academic text (1992) -
For all countries, either the coefficient on marginal cost or income is significant, which could suggest monopoly power.
Academic text (1991) -
The safety provision increases marginal cost by A, as was the case in the original example.
Academic text (1992) -
In these cases, the efficient outcome is reached using a price based on the social marginal cost of supply.
Academic text (2008) -
The problem is that competition drives prices to marginal cost.
Academic text (2017) -
Critics typically look at the first part, the impact on marginal cost, while playing down or ignoring the second part.
Academic text (2017) -
In a competitive environment, prices will more closely reflect the marginal cost of generating and delivering additional power.
Academic text (1992) -
Some water provision activities feature increasing returns to scale, whereby their marginal costs fall as their supply volumes go up.
Academic text (2008) -
In other words, location 2 can meet demand when it prices at marginal cost; that is, P2 = c2.
Academic text (1992) -
This is really just Pigou's formula price equals marginal cost less externalities.
Synonyms
1
4.9
The extra or less money needed to make one more product
The change in total cost when you produce one more or one less item
How Costly
2
6.8
- Specialized
4
4.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'marginal' and 'cost' give a general clue (something about cost at the margin or a small/additional cost), but the precise technical meaning 'the cost of producing one additional unit' is an economic, specialist sense that a B1 learner who only knows 'marginal' as 'minimal' or 'borderline' is unlikely to infer. The construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'coste marginal'), so learners may get a rough idea, but full comprehension typically requires some domain knowledge.
Etymology
Marginal cost comes from the image of a 'margin' or edge, like the very last item you make at the edge of production. It links marginal ('edge') and cost because it is the money needed to make 'one more unit', so it means the cost of producing one additional unit.