marknad

Marknad is the Swedish term for a market—the arena where buyers and sellers interact to exchange goods, services, or information. Markets can be physical spaces, such as a town market or a shopping street, or digital platforms, like online marketplaces. In economics, a market also denotes the broader system of voluntary exchange, price formation, and competition that coordinates production and consumption.

Markets can be organized for different categories: goods markets, labor markets, financial markets, and commodity markets. They may be highly competitive with many buyers and sellers, or dominated by a few actors leading to imperfect competition. Prices emerge through the interaction of demand from buyers and supply from sellers.

The market mechanism allocates resources by signaling relative scarcity through prices. Competition tends to induce efficiency, while information asymmetries, externalities, or monopolies can cause market failures. Markets are influenced by regulation and policy, including consumer protection, competition rules, financial oversight, and tax or subsidy measures.

Etymology: The word marknad derives from Old Norse markaðr and is cognate with Danish marked and Norwegian marked, reflecting its historical role as a physical place for trade.