economic rent

American  

noun

1. the return on a productive resource, as land or labor, that is greater than the amount necessary to keep the resource producing or on a product in excess of what would have been the return except for some unique factor.

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economic rent British  

noun

1. economics a payment to a factor of production (land, labour, or capital) in excess of that needed to keep it in its present use

2. (in Britain) the rent of a dwelling based on recouping the costs of providing it plus a profit sufficient to motivate the landlord to let it

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Etymology

Origin of economic rent

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

What they want is economic rent: a surplus created for doing nothing of value.

From The Guardian • Jan. 13, 2013

Adoption of the single tax would do away with the profits which come from land appreciation and are known as unearned increment or economic rent.

From Time Magazine Archive

There is no list of the landholding companies who as landlords absorb in many districts the economic rent paid by the mines working favorable seams.

From The Coming of Coal by Bruere, Robert W.

In such a case the farmer is really the recipient, as we have already suggested, of part of the economic rent of the land; and an element of rent accordingly enters into his gross profits.

From Supply and Demand by Henderson, Hubert D.

In addition to normal wages and profits, he can extract from the necessities of others a surplus, to which the name of economic rent is given.

From Liberalism by Hobhouse, L. T. (Leonard Trelawny)