market economy

market economy noun

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

Compare command economy. Also called free market economy. Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019 market economy in Culture 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.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.