Resource allocation
What Resource allocation means in Economics B A-Level, as defined for Pearson Edexcel.
Definitions of Resource allocation
Exam boards and our study guides word this term in slightly different ways. Learn the version your board uses.
Check what you remember
Read the wording for your board, then hide it and explain Resource allocation in your own words. Rough notes are fine. This is a self-check, with no mark or grade.
Reference: Pearson Edexcel
The way resources are distributed through the price mechanism, which imperfect and asymmetric information can prevent from working efficiently.
The distribution of resources, which becomes inefficient when factors of production cannot move easily between alternative uses or locations.
The process by which scarce resources are distributed, which the price mechanism performs through rationing, signalling and incentives.
The way resources are distributed, which becomes a misallocation when prices do not reflect total internal and external costs.
The process that specialisation improves by focusing a country's resources on a limited range of goods or services.
The way resources are distributed, which intervention seeks to correct when the free market misallocates them.
Topics that use Resource allocation
- Externalities (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
- Government intervention and failure (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
- Market failure in society (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
- Price mechanism (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
- Trade and growth (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
Related terms
- Information gaps
- Market failure
- Social welfare
- Structural unemployment
- Capacity utilisation
- Comparative advantage
- Demerit goods
- Economic growth
Using Resource allocation in the exam
Check the command word and mark scheme for your exact question. After comparing your explanation with the reference, use the term in an answer on the linked topic. This practice does not predict an exam mark.
Practise Economics B questions
Create a free account to answer exam-style questions on this topic and get feedback on your answers.
A week of Premium from your first lesson · Then the free plan continues · No card, no charge