Home > Government & the Market > The Market Economy

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to...

  • Describe the characteristics of a market economy, including the principle and protection of private property rights.
  • Identify the relationship among supply, demand, scarcity, and opportunity cost.
  • Analyze how profit, incentive, and competition motivate individuals, households, and businesses.
  • Describe the circular flow that shows the interaction among consumers/households, businesses/producers, and markets.
  • Analyze how changes in technology, costs, and demand interact in competitive markets to determine or change the price of goods and services.
  • Compare the market economy to other types of economies (command, traditional, mixed).

Overview

This lesson teaches the basics about the market economy, including the relationships between consumers and producers, supply and demand, and profit and incentive. Students learn six traits of a market economy, compare the market economy to other types of economies, identify opportunity costs, and much more. We recommend teaching this lesson before the other lessons in this unit.

Access engaging resources with an iCivics account!

Create your free iCivics account and discover standards aligned lessons and games that meet all of your instructional needs. Our nonpartisan classroom resources engage students with complex concepts in ways they can understand and relate to.

Tags

Tech Options
No Tech Required
Web browser
Integrations
Kami
Nearpod
PDF
State standards icon

View state standards alignment

Search State Standards

Use the Scope & Sequence to help you plan your iCivics classroom experience!

Whether you enjoy finding opportunities within a well-structured sequence of resources or prefer looking around for pieces and bits that can be jigsawed together, our Scope & Sequence documents are a perfect reference point for planning. Scope & Sequence documents are available for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms and list all of our resources in one place.

View the Scope & Sequence