Economists consider governments to be "wasteful:" - whenever they over - or underallocate resources to a project. - only when they overallocate resources to a project. - only when they underallocate resources to a project. - whenever they attempt to correct a market failure.

The correct answer is: whenever they over - or under-allocate resources to a project.

Explanation:

A government is considered to be wasteful by the economists if it over-allocates or under-allocates resources on a project. Whenever resources are not efficiently or optimally allocated it is considered wasteful.

In case resources are over-allocated, the reason is given that the excess resources could have been used somewhere else.

In case resources are under-allocated, the reason is given that the given resources will not be able to provide the desired output.