The concept of structural complexity provides a useful tool to examine certain types of market behavior, especially since market activity and the structural complexity of the economy mutually influence each other. Although many aspects of these relationships deserve attention, in this chapter I address three particular questions that focus on the impact of this market structure on economic processes: To what extent has the increased structural complexity offset the action of the law of one price? To what degree has the increased structural complexity caused by the internationalization of the economy influenced the degree of competition on domestic markets? And to what extent has increased structural complexity of the economy influenced the volatility of market prices, particularly for internationally traded basic materials?

In an important sense, markets represent a structurally less complex organization of the economy than central planning. This is because markets do not feature most of the intricate interactions between various levels of government and producers. In a market economy the primary interaction is between buyers and sellers and, as a result, information is generated and used decentrally. These information flows are crucial for the functioning of markets and can be used to measure the structural complexity.

Of course, various markets are organized in quite different ways and measurements of the structural complexity can be made along many dimensions. As discussed in Chapter 6, for instance, such complexity can increase as products become more intricate or customized, as the level of technology embodied in the product rises, as markets increase in their geographical reach (internationalization), or as governmental regulation of these markets expands.