The lack of markets in which to trade in various future and contingent goods. It is sometimes argued that the economy would be optimally organized if there were markets in which all present, future, and contingent goods could be traded. In fact, however, most of these markets are missing, for various reasons. Some future goods cannot be traded because the law forbids contracts for future labour, by which effectively people sell themselves into slavery. Many future goods cannot be traded because the people who would wish to trade in them have not yet been born. Many markets in contingent goods cannot exist because the actual occurrence of the contingencies is private information which cannot be objectively confirmed. Finally, many markets which could exist in fact do not, because not enough people would wish to trade in them to allow an efficient market to be organized.

• loss
• loss leader
• Louvre Accord
• loyalty, brand
• Ltd
• Lucas critique
• lumpiness
• lump of labour
• lump-sum tax
• luxury
• M0
• M1
• M2
• M3, M4, and M5
• M3, sterling
• Maastricht convergence criteria
• Maastricht, Treaty of
• macroeconomics
• maintenance
• majority shareholder
• maker, market-
• Malthusian problem
• managed currency
• managed floating exchange rate
• managed trade