MARGINAL RETURNS: The change in the quantity of total product resulting from a unit change in a variable input, holding all other inputs fixed. You might recognize this as the definition of marginal product. It is. Marginal returns is an older and more generic term for marginal product. While marginal product has largely replaced marginal returns in most discussions of short-run production, the phrase does persist in a few terms like the law of diminishing marginal returns. When you come upon the phrase marginal returns, more often than not, it's probably referring to marginal product.

     See also | short-run production | law of diminishing marginal returns | fixed input | variable input | marginal product | average product | total product |

MARGINAL RETURNS, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: July 18, 2025].

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The quantity of production that places a firm at the lowest point on its long-run average cost curve. The minimum efficient scale achieves production of a good at the lowest possible opportunity cost. In other words, it is not possible to produced a good at any lower cost than at the minimum efficient scale. At this quantity the production involves foregoing the least amount of other goods.

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