The correct completion is: scarce.

Quick Scoop

In economics, a foundational idea is that all resources are considered scarce because there are limited resources but unlimited human wants. This is known as the basic economic problem of scarcity, and it is what forces individuals, businesses, and governments to make choices about how to allocate those limited resources.

  • Resources are called scarce when their available quantity cannot satisfy all possible uses or wants at a zero price.
  • Because of scarcity, societies must decide what to produce, how to produce it, and for whom it is produced.

The other options in the question are not basic universal properties of all resources in economics:

  • Allocated : Resources must be allocated somehow, but they are not defined as “allocated”; allocation is a response to scarcity.
  • Valuable : Some resources may have low or almost no market value, yet they are still scarce in the economic sense.
  • Renewable : Many key resources (like oil or certain minerals) are nonrenewable, so not all resources are renewable.

So, in the statement
“A basic concept in economics is that all resources are …”
the correct word to fill in is: scarce.

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