Resources are allocated in response to requests submitted for a set of entities. Each request has an associated value and resources required to satisfy the request. For each entity, local priority values are provided for prioritizing among the requests received for the entity. The priority values for every entity conforms to the same normalization rule. With respect to each entity, the system selects a set of best requests in accordance with the corresponding set of local priority values, the values associated with the requests, and the resources required to satisfy each request. A scarcity factor is determined for each resource. A score is determined for each selected best request in accordance with the value associated with each request, the resources required to satisfy the request, the scarcity factors for the resources, and a set of global priority values. The system selects a request having a best score.