1 command or centrally-planned economy 中央计划经济 2 market system or laissez-faire economy 市场自由放任式经济，政府不予干涉 3 mixed economy 混合式经济，即中央计划经济与市场经济的组合
澳大利亚昆士兰州詹姆斯库克大学的经济学教授约翰奎根对这三种基本的经济模式做了简单介绍：
At one extreme you have economists who would like to make virtually all social activity run on the basis of markets. At the other extreme, traditionally you've had a group of economists supporting a largely socialised economy in which most decisions were made by government, possibly using markets in various ways, but still nonetheless essentially making political decisions rather than market decisions. 在一个极端，有些经济学家希望几乎所有的社会活动都在市场的基础之上进行。在另一个极端，一些经济学家支持主要是社会化的经济体制。在这种体制下，绝大部分的决定都是由政府来作出。尽管也可能会在某些方面利用市场因素，但基本上还是由政府作出政治性而不是市场导向的决定。
Between that, you've got the majority of people who support some sort of mixture of the two - what's called a mixed economy. 在这两者之间，大多数人都支持这两者的某种混合体，也就是我们所说的混合经济。
In all of these markets the essential thing is that we have buyers who are wanting to purchase some goods or services, or perhaps some assets. They might be somewhat intangible assets like shares, or they might be quite tangible ones like cars and refrigerators. And then there are people who are willing to sell. And markets are the system by which their demands to pruchase the goods and the supplies are related, and of course prices are particularly important in determining what the conditions are under which people are trading. 在所有的市场中，一个基本条件是要有需要购买货物、服务或者资产的买主。他们要买的可能是无形资产如股票，也可能是有形资产如汽车和电冰箱。同时还要有人愿意出售这些东西。市场实际是把有购物需求的买方与卖方联系在一起的一种机制。当然在决定买卖双方的条件时，价格有着特别重要的作用。
