surplus

(noun)

specifically, an amount in the public treasury at any time greater than is required for the ordinary purposes of the government

Related Terms

Examples of surplus in the following topics:

  • Applications to Economics and Biology

    • In mainstream economics, economic surplus (also known as total welfare or Marshallian surplus) refers to two related quantities.
    • Consumer surplus is the monetary gain obtained by consumers; they are able to buy something for less than they had planned on spending.
    • Producer surplus is the amount that producers benefit from selling at a market price that is higher than their lowest price, thereby making more profit .
    • In calculus terms, consumer surplus is the derivative of the definite integral of the demand function with respect to price, from the market price to the maximum reservation price—i.e. the price-intercept of the demand function: