Abstract:No matter as factor or product, knowledge trading has a long history in practice. With the rise of knowledge economy, knowledge trading develops rapidly. But the development about the theory of market for ideas has fallen behind relatively, and there is debate in detail. In this paper, we began from the background and the reasons of the development of market for ideas, and then we analyzed related concept, composition, operation mechanism, system design in market for ideas and the related empirical studies. By combing the exiting literature,we found that how to keep the market for ideas effective and pricing for knowledge is a hotspot of current research, research about market for ideas may be the point of penetration of knowledge economy.