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A market economy is an economy in which decisions regarding investment, production, and distribution are based on supply and demand, and prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system. The major defining characteristic of a market economy is that investment decisions and the allocation of producer goods are mainly made by negotiation through markets. This is contrasted with a planned economy, where investment and production decisions are embodied in a plan of production. Market economies can range from hypothetical laissez-faire and free market variants to regulated markets and interventionist variants. In reality, market economies do not exist in pure form, since societies and governments regulate them to varying degrees.〔Tucker, Irvin B. p 491. Macroeconomics for Today. West Publishing. p. 491〕 Different perspectives exist as to how strong a role the government should have in both guiding the market economy and addressing the inequalities the market produces. Most existing market economies include a degree of economic planning or state-directed activity, and are thus classified as mixed economies. The term ''free-market economy'' is sometimes used synonymously with market economy, but it may also refer to laissez-faire or free-market anarchism.〔("market economy" ), Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary〕 Market economies do not logically presuppose the existence of private property in the means of production. A market economy can consist of various types of cooperatives, collectives or autonomous state agencies that acquire and exchange capital goods in capital markets, utilizing a free price system to allocate capital goods and labor.〔 There are many variations of market socialism, some of which involve employee-owned enterprises based on self-management; as well as models that involve public ownership of the means of production where capital goods are allocated through markets. == Capitalism == (詳細はmeans of production are largely or entirely privately owned and operated for a profit, structured on the process of capital accumulation. In general, in capitalist systems investment, distribution, income, and prices are determined by markets, whether regulated or unregulated. There are different variations of capitalism with different relationships to markets. In Laissez-faire and free market variations of capitalism, markets are utilized most extensively with minimal or no state intervention and regulation over prices and the supply of goods and services. In interventionist, welfare capitalism and mixed economies, markets continue to play a dominant role but are regulated to some extent by government in order to correct market failures or to promote social welfare. In state capitalist systems, markets are relied upon the least, with the state relying heavily on either indirect economic planning and/or state-owned enterprises to accumulate capital. Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism, but most feel that the term "mixed economies" more precisely describes most contemporary economies, due to their containing both private-owned and state-owned enterprises. In capitalism, prices determine the demand-supply scale. For example, higher demand for certain goods and services lead to higher prices and lower demand for certain goods lead to lower prices. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Market economy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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