Opportunity cost

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-019714",
  "term": "Opportunity cost",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definitions": [
    "1. The value of a foregone opportunity that cannot be pursued because resources are taken up by a chosen activity.\n\n2. The value lost by choosing one plan over another.\n\n3. The economic outcome of giving up an opportunity, often associated with investments.\n\n4. The value of the benefits foregone or given up due to the effect of choosing another management alternative that either impacts existing out- puts or shifts resources away from other activities so that they are no longer produced and their benefits are lost.\n\n5. The monetary value of the resources used in providing a specific set of health-care services, valued in terms of forgone alternative uses.\n\n6. The value of foregone allocation during some resource economic decision; the value of foregone allocation is often described as the “value of the next best alternative use” of the resource.” Opportunity cost need not be assessed in monetary terms. It can be assessed in terms of anything that is of value to the person or persons doing the assessing. For example, a grove of trees used to produce paper may have a next-best-alternative use as habitat for spotted owls. Assessing opportunity costs is fundamental to assessing the true cost of any course of action. In the case where there is no explicit accounting or monetary cost (price) attached to a course of action, ignoring opportunity costs could produce the illusion that the action’s benefits cost nothing at all. The unseen opportunity costs then become the implicit hidden costs of that course of action.",
    "1. The value of opportunities forgone because of an intervention program.\n\n2. The monetary value of the resources used in providing a specific set of health-care services, valued in terms of forgone alternative uses."
  ],
  "subject": [
    "Social and economic factors",
    "Policy and guidance"
  ],
  "references": [
    "Water Conservation Plan Guidelines Glossary; Water Conservation Glossary",
    "EPA Subject Matter Expert - Thurston",
    "USDA National Agricultural Library Glossary",
    "Dyrland 1973; USDA Forest Service Wildland Planning Glossary",
    "USDA 2004; Thesaurus of Terms Used in Microbial Risk Assessment",
    "Economic Analyses Glossary; Preparing Economic Analyses Glossary",
    "Program Evaluation Glossary",
    "USDA 2004"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/opportunity-cost/"
}