free market, an unregulated system of economic exchange, in which taxes, quality controls, quotas, tariffs,...
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Updated: Sep. 06, 2024•Article History
free market, an unregulated system of economic exchange, in which
taxes, quality controls, quotas,
tariffs, and other forms of centralized economic interventions by government either do not exist or are minimal. As the free market represents a benchmark that
does not actually exist, modern societies can only approach or approximate this ideal of efficient resource allocation and can be described along a spectrum ranging from low to high amounts of
regulation.