Abstract
The surplus produced by an economy, in the sense discussed here, is its output over and above the necessary subsistence of the labour force as well as other costs. This concept has a long history in economics, with the focus sometimes on the uses of the surplus for luxury consumption, state spending, or new investment, and sometimes on income distribution – if workers are paid a subsistence wage then the surplus accrues to non-wage earners.
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Brewer, A. (2018). Surplus. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2208
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2208
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