<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> In economics, a free market is an idealized system in which the prices for goods and services are determined by the open market and consumers, in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price - setting monopoly, or other authority . Proponents of the concept of free market contrast it with a regulated market, in which a government intervenes in supply and demand through various methods such as tariffs used to restrict trade and protect the economy . In an idealized free market economy, prices for goods and services are set freely by the forces of supply and demand and are allowed to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy . </P> <P> In scholarly debates, the concept of a free market is contrasted with the concept of a coordinated market in fields of study such as political economy, new institutional economics, economic sociology, and political science . All of these fields emphasize the importance in actually existing market systems of rule making institutions external to the simple forces of supply and demand which create space for those forces to operate to control productive output and distribution . </P>

Who controls goods and services in a free market economy