Capital Intensity
Capital intensity measures how much capital is required per unit of output, revenue, labor, or productive capacity.
Economics terms for capital productivity, capital intensity, marginal product of capital, and marginal efficiency of investment.
Capital Productivity and Investment Efficiency covers capital formation, investment spending, saving behavior, productivity, depreciation, obsolescence, and public investment funds used in finance and macro analysis.
Use these pages when productive capacity, replacement investment, capital intensity, productivity, or investment demand changes growth, margins, valuation, or public-sector investment assumptions. It sits inside Productivity, Obsolescence, and Capital Efficiency, so readers can move up when the broader economics context matters.
Use the table below to choose the narrower economics branch before applying a term to a model, credit view, market interpretation, policy conclusion, or risk review. Move into the term page when the evidence source, calculation, institution, market convention, or risk exposure matters.
| Area | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Capital Intensity | Capital intensity measures how much capital is required per unit of output, revenue, labor, or productive capacity. |
| Capital Intensive | Capital intensive describes businesses or industries that require large fixed assets, equipment, or infrastructure relative to labor or output. |
| Capital Productivity | Capital productivity measures output generated per unit of capital input, helping assess investment efficiency and asset use. |
| Marginal Efficiency of Capital | Marginal efficiency of capital is the expected return from adding one more unit of capital investment. |
| Marginal Efficiency of Investment | Marginal efficiency of investment compares expected project returns with the cost of capital or interest rate. |
| Marginal Product of Capital (MPK) | Marginal product of capital measures the additional output produced by one more unit of capital, holding other inputs constant. |
Capital and productivity explanations are educational and do not recommend a project, security, fund, or allocation.
Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.
Capital intensity measures how much capital is required per unit of output, revenue, labor, or productive capacity.
Capital intensive describes businesses or industries that require large fixed assets, equipment, or infrastructure relative to labor or output.
Capital productivity measures output generated per unit of capital input, helping assess investment efficiency and asset use.
Marginal efficiency of capital is the expected return from adding one more unit of capital investment.
Marginal efficiency of investment compares expected project returns with the cost of capital or interest rate.
Marginal product of capital measures the additional output produced by one more unit of capital, holding other inputs constant.