Market economy- a set of economic relations that develop in the sphere of commodity-money relations on the market.
The market economy has a complex structure – it includes several types of markets and developed infrastructure. The main types of markets are:
a) market of goods and services,
b) the market of factors of production,
c) the financial or money market.
Each of these types of markets is divided into sub-markets and separate segments, which are determined by different features:
a) by economic purpose – market of consumer goods and services, means of production, labor, raw materials market, the market of know-how, the market of securities, currency, etc;
b) by geographic location – global, national, regional, local;
c) by types of competition-free, monopolistic, oligopolistic, mixed;
d) by branches – food, automobile, oil, computer, and others;
e) by the form of sales and organization – wholesale, small wholesale, retail.
The modern market economy is based on a developed social division of labor, commodity production, and exchange. It is characterized by a variety of forms of ownership and management, the presence of developed market infrastructure (banks, exchanges, trading houses, etc.), the active regulatory role of the state, civilized relations, and social orientation.