This important new book presents a unique body of research into the economics of the digital society. It questions how modern economies have been transformed as a result of digital goods and markets, and explores the policy implications and challenges of this revolution.
Luc Soete and Bas ter Weel have assembled leading economists and social scientists to provide an invaluable insight into the influence of the digital society in the core fields of economics. They offer a comprehensive overview of the changes that information and communication technologies (ICTs) have brought about in our analysis and understanding of society, focusing particularly upon welfare economics, networks, the diffusion of new businesses and new forms of entrepreneurship, the auctioning of licences, the much-debated role of intellectual property rights and the emergence of free software in the open-source movement.
Contents: 1. Introduction and Summary 2. World-wide-welfare: A Microeconomic Analysis of 'the New Economy' 3. Network Formation, Innovation and IT Use 4. Adoption and Diffusion of e-Business and the Role of Network Effects 5. Radio Spectrum Fees as Determinants of Market Structure: The Consequences of European 3G Licensing 6. Does the New Economy Need all the Old IPR Institutions and Still More? 7. Free Software Developers: Who, How and Why 8. Technological Substitution, Job Stress and Burnout 9. Some Economics of Digital Content 10. How Computerization has Changed the Labour Market: A Review of the Evidence and a New Perspective 11. ICT and Optimal Unemployment Benefits when Pissarides meets Dixit-Stiglitz 12. Unleashing Animal Spirits: Investment in ICT and Economic Growth 13. The Impact of ICT-Investment on Knowledge Accumulation and Economic Growth 14. A Digital Society for Us All: 'Old' and 'New' Policy Reflections
