The term surplus is used in economics for several related quantities. The consumer surplus is the amount that consumers benefit by being able to purchase a product for a price that is less than they would be willing to pay. The producer surplus is the amount that producers benefit by selling at a market price that is higher than they would be willing to sell for. Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ...

If the government intervenes, using, for example, a tax or a subsidy, then the graph of supply and demand becomes more complicated and will also include an area that represents government surplus.

Combined, the consumer surplus, the producer surplus, and the government surplus (if present) make up the social surplus or the total surplus. Total surplus is the primary measure used in Welfare Economics to evalutate the efficiency of a proposed policy. Welfare economics is a branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to simultaneously determine the allocational efficiency of a macroeconomy and the income distribution consequences associated with it. ...

A basic technique of bargaining for both parties is to pretend that their surplus is less than it really is: sellers may argue that the price they asks hardly leaves them any profit, while customers may play down how eager they are to have the article. Negotiation is the process whereby interested parties resolve disputes, agree upon courses of action, bargain for individual or collective advantage, and/or attempt to craft outcomes which serve their mutual interests. ...

In national accounts, operating surplus is roughly equal to distributed and undistributed pre-tax profit income, net of depreciation. Measures of national income and output are used in economics to estimate the value of goods and services produced in an economy. ... Profit is defined as the residual value gained from business operations. ...

In heterodox economics, the economic surplus denotes the total income which the ruling class derives from its ownership of society's (productive) assets, which is either reinvested or spent on consumption. In Marxian political economics, the ruling class refers to that segment or class of society that has the most economic and political power. ...

In Marxian economics, economic surplus refers to surplus value and surplus labour. Marxian economics refers to a body of economic thought stemming from the work of Karl Marx. ... Surplus value, according to Marxism, is unpaid labour that is extracted from the worker by the capitalist, and serves as the basis for capitalist accumulation. ... Surplus labour is a concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. ...

See also

• microeconomics
• price discrimination
• price skimming
• negotiation
• surplus value

Scarcity is a central concept in economics. ... Opportunity cost is a term used in economics, to mean the cost of something in terms of an opportunity foregone (and the benefits that could be received from that opportunity), or the most valuable foregone alternative. ... The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). ... In economics, elasticity is the ratio of the incremental percentage change in one variable with respect to an incremental percentage change in another variable. ... The demand for various commodities by individuals are generally thought of as the outcome of a utility-maximizing process. ... Consumer theory relates preferences, indifference curves and budget constraints to consumer demand curves. ... See also: record producer. ... In economics, the main criteria by which one can distinguish between different market forms are: the number and size of producers and consumers on the market, the type of goods and services being traded, and the degree to which information can flow freely. ... Welfare economics is a branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to simultaneously determine the allocational efficiency of a macroeconomy and the income distribution consequences associated with it. ... In economics, a market failure is a situation in which markets do not efficiently organize production or allocate goods and services to consumers. ...