deadweight

She heeds this warning, starting to realize that this boyfriend might not bring her freedom but deadweight, as much as she tries to help him help himself.

Economists call this phenomenon deadweight loss.

This pattern continues in the world of international trade law, which reduces the deadweight losses from tariff and nontariff barriers to facilitate international commerce.

Rather than going to some productive use, this activity amounts to what economists consider a “deadweight loss” that does not help our economy expand in any way.

While the exact effect of the higher tariffs is uncertain, “tariffs do create deadweight loss, so we can expect them to exact some costs on the U.S. economy,” said Sarah Bauerle Danzman, an associate professor of international studies at Indiana University.