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An explicit cost is a direct payment made to others in the course of running a business, such as wage, rent and materials, [1] as opposed to implicit costs, where no actual payment is made. [2] It is possible still to underestimate these costs, however: for example, pension contributions and other "perks" must be taken into account when ...
In economics, an implicit cost, also called an imputed cost, implied cost, or notional cost, is the opportunity cost equal to what a firm must give up in order to use a factor of production for which it already owns and thus does not pay rent. It is the opposite of an explicit cost, which is borne directly. [1]
The comparison includes the gains and losses precluded by taking a course of action as well as those of the course taken itself. Economic cost differs from accounting cost because it includes opportunity cost. [3] [2] [4] (Some sources refer to accounting cost as explicit cost and opportunity cost as implicit cost. [2] [4])
The fixed cost refers to the cost that is incurred regardless of how much the firm produces. The variable cost is a function of the quantity of an object being produced. The cost function can be used to characterize production through the duality theory in economics, developed mainly by Ronald Shephard (1953, 1970) and other scholars (Sickles ...
It is different from accounting profit, which only relates to the explicit costs that appear on a firm's financial statements. An accountant measures the firm's accounting profit as the firm's total revenue minus only the firm's explicit costs. An economist includes all costs, both explicit and implicit costs, when analyzing a firm. Therefore ...
Implicit costs (also referred to as implied, imputed or notional costs) are the opportunity costs of utilising resources owned by the firm that could be used for other purposes. These costs are often hidden to the naked eye and are not made known. [8] Unlike explicit costs, implicit opportunity costs correspond to intangibles.
Implementation shortfall is a commonly targeted benchmark, which is the sum of all explicit and implicit costs. Sometimes, an opportunity cost of not transacting is factored in. [5] After measurement, costs must be attributed to their underlying causes. Finally, this analysis is used to evaluate performance and monitor future transactions.
An implicit assumption of the above rules is that all fixed costs are sunk costs. However, there can be physical assets whose cost during production is fixed but which have a salvage value which can be obtained if there is a shutdown.