Trade Off

whats's the meaning of trade off ?
Trade-off is a situation that involves losing one quality or aspect of something in return for gaining another quality or aspect. It often implies a decision to be made with full comprehension of both the upside and downside of a particular choice; the term is also used in an evolutionary context, in which case the selection process acts as the "decision-maker".

In another description of trade off is when choices are made (collectively or by an individual) to accept having less of one thing in order to get more of something else

examples of trade off
when one is allocating (limited) funds, the trade-off usually involves reduced spending for some purposes in order to be able to spend more for other more urgent purposes. However, the concept does not apply only (or even primarily) to decisions involving money. A student faced with the choice of spending Saturday studying for a Political Economy exam or shopping at The Mall makes a trade-off of shopping time for study time in deciding how many hours to study and how many to spend shopping.

In economics the term is expressed as opportunity cost, referring to the most preferred alternative given up. A trade-off, then, involves a sacrifice that must be made to obtain a certain product, rather than other products that can be made using the same required resources. For a person going to a basketball game, its opportunity cost is the money and time expended, say that would have been spent watching a particular television program.

Society also makes trade-offs, such as, for example, between its need for a more plentiful supply of energy and its need to prevent excessive deterioration of the environment caused by energy production technologies. Evaluating trade-offs, when done carefully and systematically, involves comparing the opportunity costs and benefits of each of the available alternatives with each other. Most choices (and thus most trade-offs) are not all-or-nothing decisions; rather they typically involve small changes at the margin, a little more of this at the cost of a little less of that. Consumers continuously practice marginalism and make trade-offs as they consider whether to buy one more unit or one unit less of a good or service in their efforts to obtain a mix of goods and services that afford them the greatest satisfaction for their available buying power. Producers must constantly be deciding and reevaluating their trade-offs in choosing whether to produce somewhat more or somewhat less of a particular product, whether to add a few more workers or lay a few off, whether to invest in more plant and equipment or whether to close down some of existing capacity, and so on, in their efforts to maximize profits.