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misallocation

misallocation

3 7.5
A situation in which money or other resources go to the wrong place
  • noun
  • /ˌmɪsˌæləˈkeɪʃən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : asignación errónea
  • The government's budget revealed a significant misallocation of funds intended for education.
  • misallocation of resources

And I'm not to think that it, it is a, it is a misallocation of responsibility.

Examples

  • That would be gross misallocation of funds, but just making sure you know.

  • Trade protection, in contrast, leads to a sustained misallocation of resources and a lower total output.

    Academic text (1990)
  • The result is misallocation of resources on very wide scale.

  • Where was that value signal when this massive misallocation was going on?

    Blog text (28)
  • Well, from my way of thinking, sir, this entire mission is a serious misallocation of valuable military resources.

  • Domestic demand in Asia has been held back by several other factors, including a persistent misallocation of resources.

    Academic text (2009)
  • What bothers me is the misallocation and inefficient distribution of our tax money.

    Blog text (10)
  • The study identified that the main reasons for this slowdown in productivity were the misallocation of resources and market inefficiencies.

    Academic text (2018)
  • We properly criticize the misallocation of capital in China, with empty malls, apartment buildings, and whole cities.

    Blog text (29)
  • Robo-lending and the securitization it facilitates lead to the misallocation of capital and economic instability.

    Blog text (2)

Synonyms

mismanagement
vsmisallocation
29 5.3

Careless running of an organization or its money

is narrower focusing on wrong resource placement rather than broad managerial failure
malinvestment
vsmisallocation
  • Specialized
2 9.9

Money put into projects that fail to make money because of bad choices or wrong signals

refers to placing resources in wrong purposes beyond merely bad investments
maladministration
vsmisallocation
  • Literature
1 8.5

Poor or dishonest management of public services

is about placing resources wrongly rather than official corruption or misrule
misdirection
vsmisallocation
1 6.8

Poor management of people, money, or work

means wrong placement of resources rather than only poor direction
maldistribution
vsmisallocation
  • Specialized
9.0

An uneven spread of something inside a system that makes it work poorly

focuses on placing resources in wrong places rather than broad system imbalance
misadministration
vsmisallocation
8.3

Poor management of an organization or its money

applies to wrong placement specifically rather than poor general administration

Antonyms

52 4.3

An amount of something given for a particular use

How Appropriate

allocation
52 4.3
to waste
1.0
misallocation
  • Specialized
3 7.5

Surface Forms

misallocation singular

Morphology

misallocation = allocation (transparent) = mis + allocate + ion

The meaning is directly derived from mis- ('wrongly') + allocation ('assignment of resources'), so learners who know the parts can infer the meaning.

Etymology

Misallocation breaks into mis- meaning 'wrong' and allocate meaning 'to put or give', a root you also see in location and local, which mean 'place'. So a misallocation is simply putting money, time, or effort in the wrong place or for the wrong purpose.