Here are the summarized characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of free market economy and planned economy : 

	Free Market Economy	Planned Economy
1)     Characteristics	. Existence of consumer sovereignty	. No consumer sovereignty
	. Private ownership	. Public ownership
	. The price mechanism operates freely	. Equality of income and wealth
	. Free enterprise	. No freedom of enterprise
	. Competition	. A high and stable level of employment
2)     Advantages	. Efficient allocation of resources	. Attainment of full employment
	. Wider range of choices	. Social justice
	. Decentralized decision making	. Economic stability
3)     Disadvantages	. An unequal distribution of income	. Misallocation of resources
	. Demerit goods	. The lack of choice
	. An underproduction of merit goods	. Costly administration
	. Lack of public goods	. Loss of consumer sovereignty
	. Competition may be wasteful	. The time lag in the implementation of plans

Mixed Economy
   In a mixed economy, both public and private sectors work hand-in-hand to ensure the economic growth of a country. The role of public sector is to complement the private sector by providing the infrastructure to encourage effective economic activity. Next, the government will try to reduce income inequality by imposing a progressive tax system where higher income earners are taxed more than lower income earners. The government will also control the existence of monopolies and regulate their power. In a public sector, there's little/ no choice. The government plans and allocates accordingly whereas in private sector, the choice of goods and services are made with the price mechanism.

   The government will only intervene in certain industries where :

a) The initial/ fixed costs are too high.

b) It is not profitable for the private sectors.

c) It involves merit goods.

d) There is a need to avoid duplication and wastage of scarce resources.

e) Strategic or military reasons are involved.

f) Humanitarian reasons are involved.