Economics of Information

Introduction

There have been discussions among scholars in developed countries regarding economics of information. Developed countries includes Australia, New Zealand, United States, Ireland, Germany, Japan, Canada and many more are countries that have a high level of development according to some criteria. The criterion is income per capita; countries with high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita would thus be described as developed countries. Another economic criterion is industrialization; countries in which the tertiary and quaternary sectors of industry dominate would thus be described as developed. More recently another measure, the Human Development Index (HDI), which combines an economic measure, national income, with other measures, indices for life expectancy and education has become prominent. This criterion would define developed countries as those with a very high (HDI) rating.

Birchler and Butler (2007) stated that there are many reasons to know in depth about economics of information, which are information is an interesting economic good, economics is about information, information is of strategic importance and information economics is a young field with practical relevance in many context.

According to Sloman (2003), many people think that economics is about money. Well, to some extent this is true. Economics has a lot to do with money: with how much money people are paid; how much they spend; what is costs to buy various items; how much money firms earn; how much money there is in total in the economy. But despite the large number of areas in which our lives are concerned with money, economics is more than just the study of money. It is concerned with the production of goods and services and the ...

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