diminishing returns

diminishing returns

1. In economics, a yield rate (i.e., of profits, production, benefits, etc.) that fails to grow in proportion to the amount of investment, skill, time, or effort that is added. The restaurant, to combat high volumes of customers, hired a large surplus of wait staff and cooks. This led to diminishing returns, however, as the overcrowded staff was far less efficient and eventually cost the restaurant more in wages than it was earning.
2. By extension, any output or results (e.g., of a product, project, organization, etc.) that fail to increase proportionally to additional time, money, skill, or effort. Unfortunately, the show's charm has not lasted, and the infusion of zanier plots has created diminishing returns in terms of quality.
See also: diminish, return
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • the law of diminishing returns
  • Keep your shop, and your shop will keep you.
  • a sleepwalk
  • come naturally
  • brown thumb
  • come easily to (one)
  • come easily, naturally, etc. to somebody
  • add another string to (one's) bow
  • be (as) easy as one-two-three
  • be (as) easy as rolling off (of) a log
References in periodicals archive
"Pakistan's dual policy towards the Taliban can unravel the whole game plan for which Pakistan exposed its land and people to grave risks, whose diminishing returns and serious damage are becoming apparent now," the editorial concluded.
He added that the herd retirement program "has reached a point of diminishing returns," where there were a declining number of member farms that were expecting to use CWT as a means to liquidate their herds.
A related school of thought suggests that knowledge spillovers facilitate growth through innovation despite diminishing returns to the two traditional economic inputs of capital and labour (Romer, 1986; Lucas, 1988; Aghion and Howitt, 1997).
Diminishing returns for the old software sales model, shipped by CD, which IDC expects to drop to 15 percent of net-new software sales by 2012; that means 85 percent of these offerings will be cloud-based, while more established ISVs will move to SaaS delivery by 2014.
In all attempts to increase efficiency, the law of diminishing returns comes in, so food production must have a limit beyond which we cannot go.
But studies show the state has reached the point of diminishing returns in the tobacco wars.
"If your training on the treadmill is always eight miles per hour for 45 minutes then you are going to see diminishing returns very quickly," he said.
I HOPE the team behind Racing for Change will have the law of diminishing returns in mind when they consider their plans for Saturdays.
This is the law of diminishing returns" Actress Emma Thompson who vows she won't be looking to the surgeon's knife to hold back the years "I put my hands up.
In other words, there is a "point of diminishing returns"; (2) Student performance is equal or better in smaller schools; and (3) Other considerations besides finances should be part of the consolidation deliberation.
"The law of diminishing returns is setting in for the Government.
They have diminishing returns, especially in this economy.
From learning the art of study reading (which is very different from "speed reading"!), to the importance being aware of one's own alertness cycle and the point of mental diminishing returns, harnessing the #1 study skill of the ability to focus, and more, Study Smarter, Not Harder absolutely lives up to its title.
The store has done limited ads in the local Pennysaver, but has seen diminishing returns recently, so Putney is buying more radio spots.
industrial average, and diminishing returns are going to set in, just as they did in other developing nations in the past, predict Jefferson (of Brandeis University), Hu (the National University of Singapore), and Su (Beijing University).