Market (economics)

In economic theory, a market exists when a would-be buyer makes contact with a would-be seller for the purpose of agreeing an exchange. In his Principles of Economics Alfred Marshall offered several definitions and gave a range of examples . Marshall also introduced the concept of a perfect market when he wrote .. the more nearly perfect a market is, the stronger is the tendency for the same price to be paid for the same thing at the same time in all parts of the market. The hypothetical ideal of a perfect market has since been developed to mean a situation in which price is determined by the interaction of collective supply with collective demand, and in which no individuals or groups are able to influence it.