accountants defined cost in terms of actual monetary payments for resources or inputs used in the production of goods and services these are called the explicit cost two productions but for economist cost is more than just the actual money exchange during the production of a goods or service. implicit costs are usually estimated to be the revenues business could have made operating in the next best industry simply put implicit cost is the money a business could have made if it were doing something else the following example illustrates how the difference between the cost as considered by accountant and the cost is considered by an economist suppose you run your own