Socialist economics are the economics of socialism. According to many proponents, socialist economic theories and arrangements are united by the desire to: produce for use rather than profit, achieve greater equality, give workers greater control of the means of production, use rational scientific planning to create a more effective mechanism for producing and distributing goods and services, and to direct the economy towards social goals rather than individual profit. The term socialist economics may also be applied to analyses of the economics of existing socialist systems, such as the works of Hungarian economist János Kornai.

Within the broad scope of socialist economics are various economic theories, sometimes in opposition to one another. Some of these are: Marxian economics, the Lange Model, participatory economics, cooperative economics and mixed economies (as championed by social democrats or democratic socialists).