Abstract
An ever-more-popular theme in the social sciences, as well as in the general literature over the past decade, has been that technologically advanced economies are in the process of moving beyond industrial capitalism to information-based economies that will bring profound changes in the form and structure of the economic system.2 Rapid advances in computer and telecommunication technologies are making it possible to generate information that was heretofore unattainable, transmit it instantaneously around the globe, and — in a rapidly growing number of instances — sell it in information markets. Some authors claim that the United States already devotes the majority of its economic resources to information-related activities.3 The computer, telecommunication, and information content industries are among the most rapidly growing global industries, and are expected to remain so for the next decade. Many national governments are counting on these industries to provide the primary stimulus to their future growth.
This chapter is a modified version of a paper under the same title originally published in June 1985. Reprinted from the Journal of Economic Issues (Vol.XIX, No.2) by special permission of the copyright holder, the Association for Evolutionary Economics.
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Notes
See for example Daniel Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting (New York: Basic Books, 1973) and Marc Porat, ‘Global Implications of the Information Society,’ Journal of Communication, Vol.28 (Winter, 1978) pp.70–80.
Fritz Machlup, Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution, and Economic Significance, 3 vols (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980–84); Porat, ‘Global Implications’.
See for example, Dallas W. Smythe, Dependency Road: Communications, Capitalism, Consciousness, and Canada (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1981); and William H. Melody, ‘Direct Broadcast Satellites: The Canadian Experience’ (1982), published in German in Satelliten-Kommunikation: Nationale Mediensysteme und Internationale Komrnunikationspolitik (Hamburg: Hans Bredow Institute, 1983).
Herbert I. Schiller, Who Knows: Information in the Age of the Fortune 500 (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1981); and Rohan Samarajiwa, ‘Information and Property Rights: The Case of the News Agency Industry’ (Paper presented at 14th Conference of the International Association for Mass Communication Research, Prague, Czechoslovakia, August 1984).
See for example Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies of Freedom (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983).
William H. Melody, ‘Development of the Communication and Information Industries: Impact on Social Structures’ (Paper prepared for the Symposium on the Cultural, Social, and Economic Impact of Communication Technology, sponsored by UNESCO and Instituto della Enciclopedia Italians, Rome, Italy, 12–16 December 1983).
Edward S. Herman, Corporate Control, Corporate Power: A Twentieth Century Fund Study (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
William H. Melody, ‘Cost Standards for Judging Local Exchange Rates,’ in Diversification, Deregulation, and Increased Uncertainty in the Public Utility Industries, ed. H.M. Trebing (East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University, MSU Public Utilities Papers, 1983) pp. 474–95; ‘Efficient Rate Regulation in the Competitive Era’, in New Directions: State Regulation of Telecommunications (Symposium Proceedings, Washington State Legislature, Joint Select Committee on Telecommunications, and University of Washington Graduate School of Public Affairs, Seattle, 11–12 July 1984, Sect.VI, pp.1–18).
Richard B. DuBoff, ‘The Telegraph and the Structure of Markets in the United States, 1845–1890’ in Research in Economic History, Vol.8 (1983) pp.253–77.
See, for example, Robin E. Mansell, ‘Industrial Strategies and the Communication/Information Sector: An Analysis of Contradictions in Canadian Policy and Performance’ (Ph.D. diss., Simon Fraser University, 1984); and ‘Contradictions in National Communication/Information Policies: The Canadian Experience’, Media Culture and Society (Spring 1985) pp.33–53.
See Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 5th ed. (New York: Modern Library, 1977 [1776]).
See, for example, William J. Baumol, ‘Contestable Markets: An Uprising in the Theory of Industry Structure’ in American Economic Review, Vol.72 (March 1982) pp. 1–15; for a critique, see William G. Shepherd, ‘“Contestability” vs. Competition’ in American Economic Review, Vol.74 (September 1984) pp.572–85.
See William H. Melody, ‘The Marginal Utility of Marginal Analysis in Public Policy Formulation’, in Journal of Economic Issues, Vol.8 (June 1974) pp.287–300.
Gabriel Palma, ‘Dependency: A Formal Theory of Underdevelopment or a Methodology for the Analysis of Concrete Situations of Underdevelopment’ in World Development, Vol.6 (July/August 1978) pp.881–924.
See, for example, Harold A. Innis, Empire and Communications (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972 [1950]);Harold A. Innis, Essays in Canadian Economic History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1956); and I. Wallerstein, The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Academic Press, 1976).
C.F. Ayres, The Theory of Economic Progress: A Study of the Fundamentals of Economic Development and Cultural Change (Michigan: New Issues Press, Western Michigan University, 1978 [1944]), p.xxxv.
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© 1985 Association for Evolutionary Economics
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Melody, W.H. (1985). The Information Society: Implications for Economic Institutions and Market Theory. In: Comor, E.A. (eds) The Global Political Economy of Communication. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24926-8_2
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