diminishing returns, law of

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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• Nostoi ("Returns"), a lost ancient Greek epic
• Election returns, denoting the resulting tallies of election ballots

In economic, financial, and marketing affairs:

• Return (finance), referring to the benefit derived from an investment
• Return (economics), the benefit distributed to the owner of a factor of production.
• Abnormal return, denoting the difference in behaviour between one stock and the overall stockmarket
• Diminishing returns , referring to a decrease of efficiency with scaling
• Return on investment (ROI), a calculation used to decide on the wisdom of an investment
• Taxes, where tax returns are forms submitted to taxation authorities

See also

• Return (disambiguation)
• The Return (disambiguation)