page_title: Sunk cost
hierarchical_section_title: Sunk cost
caption_attribution_description: English: Concorde Русский: Cамолёт Конкорд
context_page_description: In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Sunk costs are contrasted with prospective costs, which are future costs that may be avoided if action is taken. In other words, a sunk cost is a sum paid in the past that is no longer relevant to decisions about the future. Even though economists argue that sunk costs are no longer relevant to future rational decision-making, in everyday life, people often take previous expenditures in situations such as repairing a car or house into their future decisions regarding those properties.
context_section_description: In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost (also known as retrospective cost) is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Sunk costs are contrasted with prospective costs, which are future costs that may be avoided if action is taken. In other words, a sunk cost is a sum paid in the past that is no longer relevant to decisions about the future. Even though economists argue that sunk costs are no longer relevant to future rational decision-making, in everyday life, people often take previous expenditures in situations such as repairing a car or house into their future decisions regarding those properties.
caption: The sunk cost fallacy has also been called the "Concorde fallacy": the UK and French governments took their past expenses on the costly supersonic jet as a rationale for continuing the project, as opposed to  "cutting their losses".
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