The economic system based on private property and private enterprise. Under this system at least a major proportion of economic activity is carried on by private profit-seeking individuals or organizations, and land and other material means of production are largely privately owned. Capitalism does not imply complete laissez-faire; it is compatible with having parts of the economy in public ownership, and with varying degrees of regulation of the private sector on grounds including public health and safety, enforcement of competition, and protection of the environment. Such regulation is, however, typically negative: the rules lay down what individuals or firms may not do, but initiative about what is done within these rules is decentralized. Capitalism is contrasted with socialism, under which in principle all major economic decisions are taken collectively.

• equity-linked assurance
• equity, negative
• equity withdrawal
• equivalence, Ricardian
• equivalent, certainty
• equivalent variation
• ERM
• erosion
• error
• errors, types 1 and 2
• error term
• escalator clause
• ESOP
• espionage, industrial
• ESRC
• estate duty
• Estimates
• Estimates, Select Committee on
• estimator, unbiased
• ethics, business
• EU
• Euler's theorem
• Euro
• Euro area
• Eurobond