Most modern economies are capitalist. Their development is accompanied by the building of various legal relations, in the structure of which there are subjects and objects of the market. Both those and other elements of economic activities can play a specific role in the formation of the economic system at one level or another. Who is most often the subject of market relations? What are the most common types of communication data objects?
Who are market participants?
Market actors - who are they? Traditionally, those are usually understood as sellers (manufacturers) of goods and services and their customers. Also in the expert environment, discussions often arise on the subject of whether to consider the state as a subject of the market. On the one hand, it may well be both a supplier and a buyer of goods and services. On the other hand, the interaction of market entities is possible without the participation of the state. In this sense, it acts as an optional participant in the relevant legal relations.
Many researchers evaluate the state as an institutional entity located above the market. If necessary, it can become a participant in communications as a seller or buyer, but at the same time, the position of market sovereignty with respect to the state is quite acceptable. According to another point of view, political institutions should be considered as a constant subject of the market - however, not as seller or buyer, but as acting as a regulator.
Thus, the classification of participants in market relations can be supplemented by another category - entities that directly affect the interaction of key participants, which are sellers and buyers. Consider their specifics in more detail.
Sellers
So, the market entities that can be attributed to the key ones are sellers. They can be producers at the same time, but this is not always the case. Sellers are market entities capable of being intermediaries, agents, representatives. They can have the status of individuals, organizations, and in some cases they are presented in the form of state institutions or organizations that, by right of ownership, belong to state structures.
Sellers as market entities solve the problems associated with the formation of a commercial offer in the form of goods or services. Between them various relations can be formed. Most often, they are either in partnership or in competitive interaction. Sometimes it is rather difficult to distinguish between marked activities. For example, if one company acquired a controlling stake in another, then this, on the one hand, can be regarded as a partnership deal, on the other hand, as a result of the fact that the first company won the competition.
Buyers
Buyers are also key economic entities market. They, in turn, form a demand for those goods and services that sellers supply. As a rule, the interaction of buyers between themselves does not imply partnership or competition - with the exception of scenarios when a deficit is formed for a particular product. Buyers can be individuals, legal entities or government institutions.
It is worth noting that both of the noted types of market entities can simultaneously play two roles at once. For example, one company can sell goods to another, and at the same time buy something from it.Therefore, the term “market entity” is more appropriate to use in the context of the designation of the current role played by one or another participant in market relations, but not for the purpose of characterizing its constant activities.
Industry actors: securities market
In a narrower interpretation, the concept in question can be used in relation to certain market sectors or types of legal relations. So, there are subjects of the securities market.
These will probably be traders, banks, issuers of shares. But they will be divided, one way or another, into sellers and buyers of the respective assets. It can be noted that the subjects securities market also characterized by inconsistent status in the context of attribution to sellers or buyers. For example, if a company issues shares and issues them for free sale on the stock exchange, it becomes a seller, but at the same time, it can acquire the assets of other corporations and thus become a buyer.
Despite the fact that the border between the two main types of market entities is not easy to establish, in some cases a certain commercial role is assigned to specific individuals more or less steadily. There are, therefore, entities that are predominantly sellers, and there are those that in most cases remain buyers. Consider the specifics of those and others in more detail.
Entities with a stable seller status
There are market entities that in most cases are sellers. Among these are businesses in the B2C segment, that is, focused on the sale of goods and services to individuals.
Return communications, when a client or buyer sells something to a supplier of products or services, are not typical for legal relations involving this type of entities. Market participants in this category are a significant part of those businesses that carry out activities in the service sector. The activities of market entities of the appropriate type in many cases do not imply that any other participant in commercial legal relations will provide similar services with respect to them.
Entities as sellers: the labor market
There are areas of interaction between citizens and organizations in which the former almost always become sellers, and the latter - buyers. Among those - labor market. Citizens applying for a job actually sell their labor. Employing companies buy it by paying salaries.
Of course, the legal relations in which labor market actors participate can differ significantly from those that are realized in the same sphere of securities sales. If only because they are regulated by a special branch of legislation, if we talk about the Russian system of law.
Sustainable Buyer Entities
In turn, there are subjects of market relations, which in most cases are the buyer. Actually, we can easily find examples of such in the areas we have already noted. If the subject of the market is a B2C-oriented business, then its customers in most cases will be only buyers. The same can be said of service companies. Their customers rarely provide some kind of response services.
The subjects of the labor market acting as a buyer are, as we noted above, employers. If we talk about more general categories that exist, for example, in assessing the macroeconomic role of various entities, it can be noted that in the general case, legal entities are sellers and individuals are buyers. In some areas, say, in retail trade, such a division of subjects may be most pronounced, and in the case of online sales - less obvious, since in the second case legal entities can act as buyers of goods from private sellers for the purpose of subsequent sale on the local market.
Household Specifics
Some economists identify households as a separate category. It is assumed that these are the main actors in the market as buyers. A household, in accordance with a common interpretation, is an economic unit represented by one person or group of people who are able to make decisions individually or collectively.
Households are characterized by the desire to meet certain needs and utilize available resources as efficiently as possible. The category under consideration in most cases includes market entities that are not directly related to the state. Households are, as a rule, private individuals or their associations. But if, for example, we are talking about the army garrison, then their institutional nature, priorities in needs, and in many ways decision-making mechanisms can be predetermined primarily by state activities.
Households as sellers
We noted above that households are most often regarded as buyers. But scenarios are possible in which individuals — individually or as part of certain communities — become sellers of goods or services. They can supply relevant products to other households as well as to other market entities - legal entities or the state. Most often, of course, the category of participants in commercial relations under consideration interacts with the private sphere.
Much depends on a specific segment of the economy. For example, financial market actors are quite rare in the role of sellers-households, simply because permits issued only if certain criteria are met to carry out securities issue activities. For example, possession of the authorized capital in the volumes that the average household representative does not always have in hand.
Subjects product market already may well be represented by the considered category of persons. In most cases, sellers in labor relations will be just representatives of households, and quite rarely, buyers. Although, for example, under Russian law, employers can be not only organizations, but also ordinary citizens.
The role of the state as a market entity
Let us examine in more detail what is the role of the state, which is the subject of the market - in accordance with the popular point of view, in commercial legal relations.
In fact, it is presented as a set of activities that are related:
- with the publication of laws regulating legal relations between the main market entities - sellers and buyers;
- with the development of a policy for the development of certain segments of commercial communications;
- with the provision of legal protection for the main market entities.
Thus, the role of the state is extremely important. It can be noted that, if necessary, it is quite capable of replacing sellers or buyers in certain types of legal relations. Such activities may be associated with a shortage of demand or supply. For example, if an enterprise temporarily lost access to a particular sales market, then the state can start to order the goods it produces.
Regarding labor relations, political institutions can be employers, and very significant ones. The state can be the leading subject of the educational sphere, establish educational institutions that need highly qualified personnel.
The same can be said about the civil service, about the armed forces. Employment of citizens in relevant areas is regulated, if we talk about the Russian legal model, by separate laws, while legal relations between employers and employees in the private sphere must comply with the norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
The task of the state is to assist private market participants in their commercial activities.The interest of the authorities in this case is primarily the solution of social problems, such as the employment of citizens. The subjects of the market of goods and services in the role of sellers are the main taxpayers. Therefore, supporting relevant entrepreneurial activities is another important task of the state.
There are areas of activity that become the prerogative of exclusively power structures. This can be considered foreign trade. The state in this sense acts as the subject of a larger market - international. It can be both a seller and a buyer - arranging, respectively, export and import.
Thus, if we talk about the subjects of economic activities, it can be noted that the corresponding roles are observed at several levels. It can be international if we talk about relations between states in the field of export and import. It can be traced locally, if we talk about the sale of goods of one citizen to another, relatively speaking, through advertisements in the newspaper. Market entities that operate on the territory of a particular state are most often embedded in the country's economic system. Even if one citizen sold a product to another, before that he bought the corresponding item somewhere, paying VAT (as part of the price of the goods) to the seller. Which, in turn, also paid profit tax to the state.
Market Objects
So, we investigated who such subjects of the market are. However, besides them, objects are also present in the structure of any commercial legal relations. Let's consider their essence.
Market objects are, in fact, goods and services that are sold by sellers and purchased by their customers. They are characterized by relatively stable demand, cost, and sales dynamics. Market objects can be classified based on the widest range of attributes. Among them - the method of production (factory or manual), the target group of consumers, the nature of use.
Some researchers distinguish within the category of elements of commercial activities under consideration a special kind of objects - those that are directly associated with market relations. Among them - means of labor, securities, national currency, labor.
The main criterion by which objects of market relations are allocated into a separate group is that their commercial turnover implies approximately the same set of rights and obligations of the seller and the buyer. In turn, the “classic” objects of the market - goods and services, suggest that the buyer, most often because of the provisions of the law or legal traditions, has more rights than the seller. Market relations arise most often between entities of equal status, for example, businesses in the B2B segment. “Classic” market objects are in commercial circulation, as a rule, in the course of interaction of participants with different legal status. For example, in the case of legal relations involving a retail store and citizens.
When it comes to the B2C segment, subjects of the service market, as a rule, also build communications that imply a greater scope of rights for the buyer. However, in all cases, the corresponding preferences also imply the need to fulfill certain obligations. Even taking into account the fact that the buyer has a large number of rights, he, in particular, must pay for the goods or service in a timely manner, and in some cases he must comply with the obligation to correctly use the purchased product.
If we talk about labor relations, the scope of rights between sellers - employees and buyers - employing companies is generally comparable. The former undertake to come to work on a schedule, to conscientiously fulfill their duties, the latter to provide them with the necessary working conditions, pay salaries, and fulfill social obligations stipulated by law.
The key characteristic of legal relations in the structure of which there are subjects and objects of the market is the voluntary participation of the parties in commercial communications. As a rule, the seller and the buyer make decisions on the beginning of interaction, based on their own economic benefits or needs.In some cases, the state can interfere in the process of interaction between them, for example, by issuing laws by which sellers must set certain prices for goods, services, or not overstate them relative to established values.
Market subjects and objects are elements that, as we noted above, can be included in the structure of commercial communications carried out at different levels - international, domestic, or localized, if legal relations are reduced to the participation of a small number of persons.
