Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• ECONOMIC LIFE
  
  1. The estimated period over which an improved property may be profitably used so that it will yield a return over and above the economic rent attributable to the land itself; the period during which an improvement has value in excess of its salvage value. In the case of an older structure or improvement, economic life refers to the remaining period during which the improvements to the real property (not land) are depreciated for tax purposes. The economic lives of such improvements are normally shorter than their actual physical lives. Also called service life. 2. As applied to a structure, the years or age indicated by the condition and utility of the structure, as opposed to its actual or chronological age.
  
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