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A windfall gain is a sudden and usually unexpected addition to income which is substantially above the norm.[1][2] Windfall gains usually refer to a gain in an individual's income, while the term windfall profit refers to unexpected increases in profit for a company or business.[3]
The term "windfall" originally referred to fruit and branches blown from trees, which were considered to no longer belong to the tree's owner and were therefore free to claim by any passerby who discovered them.[4] As such, windfall gains are by definition those that arise primarily through luck or circumstance, rather than through forward planning. That being said, windfall gains can be anticipated and actions taken to increase the likelihood of being a beneficiary - just as someone could plan to pass a tree every day to check for fallen fruit, or wait for one to fall on a windy day. However, in these cases, the value of the gain or when it will materialise is unknown, the actions taken are small in proportion to the gain, and the gain is still a result of external circumstances. Examples of windfall gains include, but are not limited to:
What people do with windfall gains is subject to much debate. While they differ from one account to the next, most economists hypothesize that the majority of the gains are saved, due to the Permanent Income Hypothesis.[1]
棚ぼた利益は棚ぼた収入の一種です。これは、予想外の需要や政府規制など、製品市場における予期せぬ状況によって発生する可能性があります。[ 2 ]
予期せぬ利益が発生したため、一部の議員は、より高い税率で課税したり、全額没収したりしても、企業に損害を与えることはないと考えている。この種の課税は、超過利益税として知られている。[ 5 ]