In
economics
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
, resource allocation is the assignment of available
resource
''Resource'' refers to all the materials available in our environment which are Technology, technologically accessible, Economics, economically feasible and Culture, culturally Sustainability, sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and want ...
s to various uses. In the context of an entire economy, resources can be allocated by various means, such as
markets, or
planning.
In
project management
Project management is the process of supervising the work of a Project team, team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project initiation documentation, project documentation, crea ...
, resource allocation or
resource management is the scheduling of activities and the resources required by those activities while taking into consideration both the resource availability and the project time.
Economics
In
economics
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
, the field of
public finance deals with three broad areas:
macroeconomic stabilization, the
distribution of income and wealth, and the allocation of resources. Much of the study of the allocation of resources is devoted to finding the conditions under which particular mechanisms of resource allocation lead to
Pareto efficient outcomes, in which no party's situation can be improved without hurting that of another party.
Strategic planning
In
strategic planning
Strategic planning is the activity undertaken by an organization through which it seeks to define its future direction and makes decisions such as resource allocation aimed at achieving its intended goals. "Strategy" has many definitions, but it ...
, resource allocation is a
plan for using available
resources
''Resource'' refers to all the materials available in our environment which are Technology, technologically accessible, Economics, economically feasible and Culture, culturally Sustainability, sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and want ...
, for example
human resources
Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ' ...
, especially in the near term, to achieve goals for the future. It is the process of allocating scarce resources among the various
projects or business units.
There are a number of approaches to solving resource allocation problems e.g. resources can be allocated using a manual approach, an algorithmic approach (see below), or a combination of both.
There may be contingency mechanisms such as a priority ranking of items excluded from the plan, showing which items to fund if more resources should become available and a priority ranking of some items included in the plan, showing which items should be sacrificed if total funding must be reduced.
Algorithms
Resource allocation may be decided by using
computer programs applied to a specific domain to automatically and dynamically distribute resources to applicants.
This is especially common in electronic devices dedicated to routing and communication. For example, channel allocation in
wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...
communication may be decided by a
base transceiver station
A base transceiver station (BTS) or a baseband unit (BBU) is a piece of equipment that facilitates wireless communication between user equipment (UE) and a network. UEs are devices like mobile phone
A mobile phone or cell phone is a portab ...
using an appropriate
algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...
.
One class of resource whereby applicants bid for the best resource(s) according to their balance of "money", as in an
online auction business model (see also
auction theory).
In one paper on
CPU time slice allocation
an auction algorithm is compared to
proportional share scheduling.
See also
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Corruption
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Fair division
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Resource Allocation
Resources
Strategic management
Schedule (project management)
Economic planning
Public finance
Contexts for auctions