The term market refers to the place where a group of suppliers and demanders come together to engage in transactions involving a particular good or service. From this confrontation arises a price, referred to as the market price.

In theory, there are several types of markets:

When a market is characterized by a significant number of economic agents (sellers and buyers), such that no agent can individually influence the behavior of others and the market price with their decisions, it is a market of pure and perfect competition.

When there is only one seller in a market on one hand and a large number of buyers on the other, it is referred to as a monopoly market. Conversely, if there is only one buyer and several sellers, the market is a monopsony.

When a market is characterized by a small group of sellers and a large number of buyers, it is referred to as an oligopoly (however, if there are only two sellers in the market, we will refer to it as a duopoly). Oligopsony is the situation in which the number of buyers is negligible while that of sellers is significant.

When competing companies in a market sell identical but slightly differentiated goods from one another, it is referred to as a monopolistic competition market.

The market price is determined by the confrontation of supply and demand. However, the market is in equilibrium when the market supply equals the demand expressed in the market.