Economic return

Economic returns are the gains in output, income, or value, which are generated from the employment of productive inputs or resources. The concept encompasses three related but distinct ideas depending on context:

• The distribution of income among factors of production (wages, rent, interest, and profit).
• The relationship between changes in inputs and resulting changes in output (returns to scale, marginal returns).
• The surplus generated above all costs, including opportunity costs (economic profit).

Economic returns can be thought of as the counterpart to cost. Every payment to a factor of production is simultaneously a cost to the payer and a return to the recipient.