allocation of resources

Apportionment of productive assets among different uses. The issue of resource allocation arises as societies seek to balance limited resources (capital, labour, land) against the various and often unlimited wants of their members. Mechanisms of resource allocation include the price system in free-market economies and government planning, either in state-run economies or in the public sectors of mixed economies. The aim is always to allocate resources in such a way as to obtain the maximum possible output from a given combination of resources.

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