Economics of Information

W 5:45-8:35
Com 251

Instructor

Course Home Page:

http://excellent.com.utk.edu/~bates/brd_580.htm

Course Description (Catalog)

Costing and pricing of information; value of information and value added services; cost-benefit analysis and trade-offs; policy issues related to economic aspects of information exchange and transfer.

Course Description (Real)

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 libraries, information systems (e.g. Internet), and information policy.

Course Requirements

Student Attendance/ Discussion 15%

Due to the intensive nature summer courses, attendance at all lectures is critical, all deadlines are final, and no extensions can be granted. At least if you expect a grade by the end of the term.  I anticipate the course will involve some traditional lecturing (particularly about the economics side) as well as broader seminar discussions, and I also anticipate (will look forward to) a lot of questions (particularly about the economics aspects), so there is an anticipation that students will be involved in class discussions.

Student Resources Participation 5% (+possible 5% bonus)

In an information age, the flood of information can overwhelm even the most diligent Prof. (not that I make that claim). Further, the economics of information is still an emerging field. Thus, you can gain credit for bringing new materials to the attention of the professor. Everyone will need to bring at least two items, at least one of which must be on-line. Be creative: these can be relevant articles, research papers, teaching examples, web resources, issues, etc. The bonus is given for particularly interesting/valuable contributions

Short Responses 50% 

As the approach to this course will be largely conceptual, we'll shift from a traditional tests/final emphasis to a series of more narrowly focussed assignments.  There will be a variety of short take-home assignments that ask you to address conceptual issues, solve particular analytical problems, or to respond to short research questions (they may come from the books or elsewhere). There will likely be a mix of quantitative and qualitative assignments. Expect one about every other week.

Term Paper 30%

Each student will write a research paper dealing with some topic related to the economics of information.   The range of topics and approaches is fairly wide open, but they do need to be approved by the professor. They should be fairly substantial, and contain original research and/or analysis (i.e. no reviews).  These should be original works, incorporating the most recent information available.

Readings:

These readings are available through my link to Amazon.com as well as campus bookstores.  Check them all for competitive prices and availability.

Required:

Kahin, Brian, & Varian, Hal.  Internet Publishing and Beyond : The Economics of Digital Information and Intellectual Property.  MIT Press; ISBN: 0262611597; (August, 2000)

Low, Linda.  Economics of Information Technology and the Media.  World Scientific Pub Co; ISBN: 9810238444; (June 2000)

Neef, Siesfeld, & Cefola.  The Economic Impact of Knowledge.  Butterworth-Heinemann; ISBN: 0750670096; (July 1998)

Other selected readings as identified and posted on official course website

Recommended:

Bruce R. Kingma. The Economics of Information: A guide to economic and cost-benefit analysis for information professionals. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1996.

Lee W. McKnight and Joseph P. Bailey (Eds.). Internet Economics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.

Vincent Mosco and Janet Wasko (Eds.). The Political Economy of Information. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988
Other readings as assigned

Anne Branscomb. Who Owns Information? New York: Basic Books, 1995.

Ronald Bettig & Herbert Schiller, (Eds.). Copyrighting Culture: The Political Economy of Intellectual Property. Westview Press.

Lesley Ellen Harris. Digital Property. McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Herbert Schiller. Various titles

Carl Shapiro, Hal R. Varian. Information Rules : A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School, 1998

Course Schedule (tentative)