Free market

An economic system in which prices and production are determined mainly by voluntary exchange and competition, with limited government intervention.

Supply and demand: A model describing how prices and quantities respond to buyers’ demand and sellers’ supply. Their interaction guides prices and production decisions in market exchange.
Private property: A system of rights allowing people and organizations to possess, use, and transfer assets. Ownership gives market participants authority to exchange and invest in assets.
Command economy: An economic system in which central authorities make major production and allocation decisions. It replaces many decentralized market decisions with administrative direction.
Adam Smith: An eighteenth-century Scottish political economist whose work shaped classical economics. His account of specialization and exchange became central to arguments for market coordination.
Economic growth: An increase over time in an economy’s production of goods and services. Supporters link competition and investment to productivity gains and expanding output.
Price mechanism: The process through which changing prices transmit information and influence economic choices. Prices signal scarcity and help coordinate independent buyers and producers.
Voluntary exchange: A transaction undertaken by parties who choose to participate because they expect mutual benefit. Free-market transactions depend primarily on consent rather than administrative allocation.
Mixed economy: An economic system combining market allocation with substantial public ownership, regulation, or provision. Most real economies combine markets with government roles absent from the idealized free market.
The Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith’s 1776 work examining the sources of national wealth and the operation of markets. It gives a foundational account of prices, competition, and the division of labor.
Income inequality: The uneven distribution of income among individuals or households in a population. Market rewards can differ sharply with ownership, skills, bargaining power, and opportunity.

Linked from 7 pages