Economics of Information 

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Email: bjbates@utk.edu

An introduction to economic reasoning as applied to information goods and services, with an emphasis on the distinctive nature of those goods and services. The course will cover basic economic approaches and analysis, consider the nature of information as an economic good, and the resulting implications for business operations, policy, and economics. Focus will be given on the implications for information firms, information systems (e.g. Internet), and information policy. The course will be run as a mixture of lecture and seminar.  Students are expected to come to class having done the readings and prepared to discuss them.

This schedule is tentative and subject to change, partly because my books have been missing in action.  Check regularly for revisions.

These short papers should focus on your thoughts and analysis on the specified subjects.  No citations are expected, but if you use outside sources you should cite them fully and properly using one of the standard citation schemes.  Papers should be kept to 1-2 pages in length, in English, and should be written and sent to me via email as an attachment in either MSWord, rtf, or HTML format, by 5 pm on the Monday following the assignment.  They will be posted on the course website. 

1.  Select some information good or service, and argue why and how it has value.   Examine both direct and ancillary sources of value. 

2.  Select some industry or employment category that is only partially information related, and analyze why or why not it should be considered part of the Information Sector.  Address both sides of the issue and reach a conclusion. (examples: banking, cellphone manufacturing, secretarial work, nursing)

3.  Identify some emerging aspect of the digital marketplace, and consider its short and long term prospects.  In particular, consider where value is, and how value differs in "digital" and "physical" markets.

(Revised)

The goal of the paper/project is to provide a review of research and materials on some issue related to the course topic.   Among the materials reviewed, at least one (per student) should be a book or major report which is analyzed and summarized.  Think of the project as an extended analytical book review (that is, focus on the main source, but: 1-bring in additional resources and 2-be sure to critically analyze, not just summarize, the major sources).  Be sure to identify and fully cite all sources and materials used. In addition, send, as an email or attachment)  a list of 3-5 (per person in the group) Internet sites containing relevant materials.  Be sure to provide the full URL for each site.   Use of non-English language materials is encouraged, although the report and list of sites  must be in English.  The main report should be turned in at the last class meeting or as an email attachment, and the list of sites must be sent by the following Monday.

Babe, Robert E.   Communication and the Transformation of Economics.  Boulder, Westview, 1995.

Barlow, John Perry.  The Economy of Ideas, Wired, 2.03, 1994.

Bates, Benjamin J. "Information as an Economic Good: Sources of Individual and Social Value." In V. Mosco and J. Wasko (Eds.), The Political Economy of Information (pp. 76-94). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. (copy available at Comm Dept.)

Bates, Benjamin J.Excerpt from “Reinvigorating Fair Use: A Social Economics Approach”

Bates, Benjamin J.  Excerpt from "The Economic Value of Media Websites."

Bates, Benjamin J.  Excerpts from “Valuation of Media Properties”

Bates, Benjamin J.  Excerpt from "Economics of Transborder Video"

Coffman, K. G., and Odlyzko, Andrew.  The Size and Growth Rate of the Internet.  First Monday, 3.10, 1998.

Dyson, Esther.  Intellectual Value, Wired, 3.07, 1995.

Ghosh, Rishab, Aiyer.  Cooking Pot Markets: An economic model for the trade in free goods and services on the Internet.  First Monday, 3(3), 1998.

Internet Indicators, Measuring the Internet Economy.  Online report, June 2000.

King, William.  Economics of Information Products.  Essential Principles of Economics: A Hypermedia Text.

Losee, Robert M.  A Discipline Independent Definition of Information.  Online document. 1997.

Lyman & Varian.  How Much Information?  Online Report.

McGovern, Gerry.  The Three Properties of Information.  In The Caring Economy.   Nua, 1999.

McKnight, Lee, & Bailey, Joseph P.  Internet Economics.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.

McKnight, Lee. W. & Varian, Hal R. (1995).  Economic FAQs about the Internet.   Journal of Electronic Publishing 2(1), 1996.

Mosco, VIncent.  The Political Economy of Communication.  London: Sage, 1996.

National Research Council.  Information Economics: A Primer, in Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Information Age, 2000.

National Research Council.  The IT Sector: Context and Character, in Building a Workforce for the Information Economy, 2000.

OECD, Growth of electronic commerce: present and potential, in The Economic and Social Impacts of Electronic Commerce: Preliminary Findings and Research Agenda, 1998.

OECD, Measuring Electronic Commerce, 1997.

Perrolle, Judith A.  Information Technology and Society.  In Computers and Social Change.  Online document, 1999. (has a quick review of concepts)

Priest, W. Curtiss.  The Character of Information, OTA Project on Intellectual Property, 1995.

US Dept. of Commerce.  Digital Delivery of Goods & Services, in Emerging Digital Economy report, 1998