Market socialism is a type of
economic system involving the public,
cooperative, or
social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a
market economy. Market socialism differs from
non-market socialism in that the market mechanism is utilized for the allocation of
capital goods and the means of production. Depending on the specific model of market socialism, profits generated by socially owned firms (i.e. net revenue not reinvested into expanding the firm) may variously be used to directly remunerate employees, accrue to society at large as the source of
public finance, or be distributed amongst the population in a
social dividend.