Currently, competitive mechanisms based on system-marginal-price (SMP) are widely used in the day-ahead and real-time electricity markets. But there are some critical problems existing. This paper first categorizes electricity markets according to the characteristics of the seller's market and buyer's market. It then analyses and compares the two competitive mechanisms SMP and pay-as-bid (PAB) from the several economic angles, such as output, efficiency, consumer surplus, welfare and market power, etc. At last, this paper proposes that proper competitive mechanism should be chosen under different situation. It also discusses and points out the competition mechanism that integrates SMP and PAB together may have a better future.