MARKET ECONOMY Definition & Meaning

market economy

[mahr-kit i-kon-uh-mee]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a capitalistic economic system in which there is free competition and prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand.

market economy

An economy in which the greater part of production, distribution, and exchange is controlled by individuals and privately owned corporations rather than by the government, and in which government interference in the market is minimal. Although a total market economy is probably only theoretically possible (because it would exclude taxation and regulation of any kind), capitalist economies approximate it and socialist economies are antithetical to it (see capitalism and socialism). Market economies are also called free economies, free markets, or free enterprise systems.

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of market economy¹

First recorded in 1915–20

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

When China began embracing a market economy in the 1970s, its leaders made a similar demand to American companies.

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A modern market economy like the UK depends on a basic assumption of truthfulness, points out Dr David Hugh-Jones, a social scientist formerly based at the University of East Anglia.

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When considering a president's influence on the economy, it's important to recognize that we have a market economy, said Michael Walden, a Reynolds Distinguished Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University.

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"We are finally seeing investments and wages rising, and we have a chance to go back to a normal market economy," he says.

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Clean hydrogen is enormously expensive, with prices far too high to compete against fossil fuels in a competitive market economy.

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market boat marketeer

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