opportunity cost

English

Noun

opportunity cost (plural opportunity costs)

1. (economics) The cost of an opportunity forgone (and the loss of the benefits that could be received from that opportunity); the most valuable forgone alternative.
   • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Implicit in this fixation with time is the thesis that the opportunity cost of regular shopping is too high – that the hours spent driving to the better bookstore in the next town can be spent doing something more valuable.

   • 2004, "Jeff Pillet-Shore: Second Year Winds Down," BusinessWeek, 7 Jun. (retrieved 30 Oct., 2008),

     Thanks to business school, I can understand how I've actually paid for this time at home with my family—the opportunity cost of my time, my forgone income, etc.

Related terms

• accounting cost

Translations

cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone

• Armenian: այլընտրանքային ծախս (ayləntrankʿayin caxs)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 機會成本／机会成本 (zh) (jīhuì chéngběn)

• Czech: náklady obětované příležitosti m pl, náklady ušlé příležitosti m pl
• Finnish: vaihtoehtoiskustannus (fi)
• French: coût de renoncement m
• German: Opportunitätskosten (de) pl
• Italian: costo opportunità
• Polish: koszt alternatywny m
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: альтернативные затраты f pl (alʹternativnyje zatraty), альтернативные изде́ржки f pl (alʹternativnyje izdéržki)
• Spanish: coste de oportunidad m
• Tagalog: ipinagpalibang halaga