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Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law [MPECCoL]

Market Economy

Martin Schwamborn

Content type:
Encyclopedia entries
Product:
Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law [MPECCoL]
Article last updated:
October 2024

From: Oxford Constitutions (http://oxcon.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 26 March 2025

Subject(s):
Constitutions and international law — Economic development — Rule of law — Commerce and trade — Market economy — Right to property — Liberalism — Right to economic activities

General Editors: Rainer Grote, Frauke Lachenmann, Rüdiger Wolfrum
Managing Editor: Martina Mantovani

1 The term market economy is made up of the elements market and economy. While generally market refers to ‘a place to trade’ or ‘the trade itself’, economy refers to the management of (scarce) resources and needs (Chantrell 168, 318). Accordingly, a market economy is an economic system in which the distribution of goods and services is left to the market, ie to free and voluntary exchange by individuals through supply and demand (Gregory and Stuart 3, 25; Kirzner (1994) 102 f). However, there is no such thing as ‘the market’ or ‘the market economy’, because the...
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