RESOURCES, ALLOCATION OF

apportionment of productive assets among different uses. The choice among alternative uses determines the composition of the social product. Resource allocation arises as an issue because the resources of a society are in limited supply, whereas human wants are usually unlimited, and because any given resource can have many alternative uses. In free-enterprise systems, the primary mechanism through which resources are distributed among the uses most desired by consumers is the price system. In planned economies and in the public sectors of mixed economies, the choice of how resources are distributed is a political one. Within the limits of existing technology, the aim of any economizing agency within a society is to allocate resources in such a way as to obtain the maximum possible output from a given combination of resources.