Mixed Economy

A mixed economy is typically a market system of resource allocation, commerce, and trade in which the government intervenes to disrupt the “invisible hand” of free market forces. Examples of such intervention may include state-owned enterprises (such as public health or education systems), regulations, subsidies, tariffs, and tax policies. Alternatively, a mixed economy may emerge when a socialist government makes exceptions to the rule of state ownership to capture economic benefits from private ownership and free market incentives. In addition to a variety of forms, mixed economies have come about from a variety of motives and historical causes.

The British Corn Laws of the early 1800s, for example, were government interventions in the free market to protect native agricultural interests by limiting imports. The negative consequences ...