The New Economy: facts, impacts and policies☆
TL;DR: This special issue attempt to assess the significance of the New Economy, to estimate its impacts on economic growth, location of production and on income and wealth inequality, and to evaluate its prospects for economic development.
About: This article is published in Information Economics and Policy.The article was published on 2002-06-01. It has received 364 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Information economy & Digital economy.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider why institutional forms of modern capitalist economies differ internationally, and propose a typology of capitalism based on the theory of institutional complementarity, which is the outcome of socio-political compromises.
Abstract: This book considers why institutional forms of modern capitalist economies differ internationally, and proposes a typology of capitalism based on the theory of institutional complementarity Different economic models are not simply characterized by different institutional forms, but also by particular patterns of interaction between complementary institutions which are the core characteristics of these models Institutions are not just simply devices which would be chosen by 'social engineers' in order to perform a function as efficiently as possible; they are the outcome of a political economy process Therefore, institutional change should be envisaged not as a move towards a hypothetical 'one best way', but as a result of socio-political compromises Based on a theory of institutions and comparative capitalism, the book proposes an analysis of the diversity of modern economies - from America to Korea - and identifies five different models: the market-based Anglo-Saxon model; Asian capitalism; the Continental European model; the social democratic economies; and the Mediterranean model Each of these types of capitalism is characterized by specific institutional complementarities The question of the stability of the Continental European model of capitalism has been open since the beginning of the 1990s: inferior macroeconomic performance compared to Anglo-Saxon economies, alleged unsustainability of its welfare systems, too rigid markets, etc The book examines the institutional transformations that have taken place within Continental European economies and analyses the political project behind the attempts at transforming the Continental model It argues that Continental European economies will most likely stay very different from the market-based economies, and caat political strategies promoting institutional change aiming at convergence with the Anglo-Saxon model are bound to meet considerable opposition
1,611 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a broad overview of how information technology impacts organizational characteristics and outcomes and discuss the role that IT plays in moderating the relationship between organizational characteristics including structure, size, learning, culture, and interorganizational relationships.
734 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that networks and associated technologies are not neutral artifacts but are political and social spaces in their structure as well as in their content levels, and policymakers need to promote comprehensive indices over monotopical indices.
Abstract: Three arguments are raised in this article with regard to the indices used to measure the digital divide. First, I criticize policymakers who rely on simplistic measures of the digital divide, at the expense of a thoughtful analysis of (1) the purpose of the tool, (2) the level of observation, and (3) the method of approaching the data. Second, I argue that networks and associated technologies are not neutral artifacts but are political and social spaces in their structure as well as in their content levels. Accordingly, we need to factor in the context as an important actor in conceptualizing and measuring the digital divide. Third, two general types of indices are used for the measurement of the digital divide(s): focused monotopical indices and comprehensive indices. Monotopical indices are more widely available, while comprehensive ones are rare. I argue that policymakers need to promote comprehensive indices over monotopical indices. Finally, I present a conceptual definition of the digital divide and a framework for developing a comprehensive index to measure it.
290 citations
TL;DR: This paper analyzed labor productivity growth in 51 industries in Europe and the United States using shift-share techniques and identified the industries in which the U.S. has gained a lead and the underlying reasons for this.
Abstract: The surge in labor productivity growth in the United States in the late 1990s has prompted much speculation about the capacity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to structurally increase growth. The simultaneous slowdown in productivity growth in the EU suggests the European countries are falling behind. In this paper we will analyze labor productivity growth in 51 industries in Europe and the United States. Using shift-share techniques we identify the industries in which the U.S. has gained a lead and the underlying reasons for this. The results show that the U.S. has grown faster than the EU because of a larger ICT producing sector and faster growth in services industries that make intensive use of ICT. Lagging growth in Europe is concentrated in wholesale and retail trade and the securities industry.
230 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the empirical and analytical literature on online price dispersion and outline the future directions in this research stream, and examine whether price distribution is greater or smaller online than offline.
Abstract: The explosive growth in Internet retailing has sparked a stream of research on online price dispersion, defined as the distribution of prices (such as range and standard deviation) of an item with the same measured characteristics across sellers of the item at a given point in time. In this paper, we review the empirical and analytical literature on online price dispersion and outline the future directions in this research stream. We address the issue of whether price dispersion is greater or smaller online than offline, examine whether price dispersion on the Internet has changed over time, discuss multichannel retailing and measurement of price dispersion, explore why Internet price dispersion exists, and examine the drivers of online price dispersion.
189 citations
References
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TL;DR: The starting point for the economic debate is the thesis that the 1990's are a mirror image of the 1970's, when an unfavorable series of "supply shocks" led to stagflation - slower growth and higher inflation as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The resurgence of the American economy since 1995 has outrun all but the most optimistic expectations. Economic forecasting models have been seriously off track and growth projections have been revised to reflect a more sanguine outlook only recently. It is not surprising that the unusual combination of more rapid growth and slower inflation in the 1990's has touched off a strenuous debate among economists about whether improvements in America's economic performance can be sustained. The starting point for the economic debate is the thesis that the 1990's are a mirror image of the 1970's, when an unfavorable series of "supply shocks" led to stagflation -- slower growth and higher inflation. In this view, the development of information technology (IT) is one of a series of positive, but temporary, shocks. The competing perspective is that IT has produced a fundamental change in the U.S. economy, leading to a permanent improvement in growth prospects.
840 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: There is now clear supportive evidence of an acceleration of productivity in service industries that are major purchasers of information technology such as finance and wholesale and retail trade as mentioned in this paper, and these gains reflect not only increased investment in information technology but also complementary innovations in business organization and policy.
Abstract: Used properly, the term 'new e-conomy' is warranted. Since 1995, there has been a wave of innovation associated with both the production and use of information technology that has been translated into improved US economic performance. In particular, there has been a substantial acceleration in trend total factor productivity growth. Most of this acceleration actually took place outside of the computer sector. Almost none of the acceleration was cyclical. There is now clear supportive evidence of an acceleration of productivity in service industries that are major purchasers of information technology such as finance and wholesale and retail trade. These gains reflect not only increased investment in information technology but also complementary innovations in business organization and policy. To be sure, as evidenced by recent financial market volatility, there have been speculative excesses, but these should not obscure the fundamental gains that have been made.
165 citations
"The New Economy: facts, impacts and..." refers background in this paper
...In their survey of the debate, Baily and Lawrence (2001) conclude that IT innovation has been driven by the demand for improved technologies in the using industries and that in the United States competition in the service industries, often on a global scale, has encouraged them to seek out new…...
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...As already mentioned above, Baily and Lawrence (2001) suggest that the answer lies in the fact that the United States has globally competitive service industries seeking out new technologies to improve their productivity....
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01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: The E-conomy as mentioned in this paper is a new paradigm for economic transformation in the United States and the world, which is defined as a "network of networks that cross borders in a world organized into nation-states".
Abstract: There are eras when advancing technology and changing business organizations transform economies and societies. Such episodes do not just amplify productivity in one leading sector. Instead they give all economic sectors powerful new tools. Today we are living through such a shift in our economic landscape, a shift that warrants a new name: the E-conomy. Information technologies, data communication and data processing technologies, are tools to manipulate, organize, transmit, and store information in digital form. They are tools for thought that amplify brainpower in the way the technologies of the Industrial Revolution amplified muscle power. The story of the revolution in information technology is at once a story of technology and a story of innovations in business organization and practice. The two stories are yoked together; they pull forward together. The technology story is underpinned, and measured, by the doubling of semiconductor capability and productivity every-eighteen-months –a rate that has carried us from the room-sized vacuum-tube computers to the modern Internet -- and by the complementary surge in the capacity of the communications network to transmit digital information. Changes in business organization and practice are the second driver of this transformation. The E-conomy is as much a story about changes in business organization, market structures, government regulations, and human experience as it is about new technology. While these changes are spreading across industries and countries, they are more difficult to measure. Taken together, the business innovations represent a new business ecology that includes a prominent role for venture capital, the start-up, the spinoff, and new option based ways of compensating skilled workers and entrepreneurs – innovations that have unleashed a tsunami wave of new business and new technology. The E-conomy is generating substantial and unexpected increases in productivity that have motored our recent surge in economic growth and that have enlarged the margin for monetary policy. But the economic transformation is not about soft landings, smooth growth, permanently rising stock prices, government surpluses, and low rates of interest and inflation. It is about structural transformation and developments that carry disruption and change. The policy issues are moving rapidly from the narrowly technical through the narrowly legal into fundamental questions of how to organize our markets and society. Under the best of circumstances the risks of policy making are high. This background briefing on the E-conomy is aimed to provide a context and a structure for policy debate by defining the stakes, the forces, the issues at play, and an agenda – not a choice of outcomes. For the past fifty years, US government policy has played a major role in enabling America to lead in developing information technology--and just as important--in creating the conditions for America to lead in the use of information technology throughout the economy. The American government largely got policy right under three important headings -- headings we use to structure the agenda that follows: 1) Public investment in science and technology and in the technological-age education of people needed to realize the benefits of the E-conomy. Included under this heading is the re-opened question of the role of government and the institutional structures that create the next generations of technology and equip them with launch markets. 2) Rule making for the E-conomy, which extends across such thorny issues as privacy, security, and the definition of new property rights and responsibilities necessary for markets to function effectively in consonance with enduring values and purposes. 3) Flexibility and inclusion: the basic issues of institutional and labor flexibility and fairness. Compounding the policymaking challenge is the fact that the E-conomy is necessarily global. It is a network of networks that crosses borders in a world organized into nation-states. This requires, if not common rules, then harmonization, compatible rules that allow the economic networks to operate as a single large global system. It is a tough agenda.
126 citations
Additional excerpts
...Keywords: Economic growth; Economic development; ICT; Information and communication technology; Information technology; Internet; IT; New Economy; Technological change JEL Classification: O11; O30; O40; O47...
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...As Cohen et al. (2000) point out, the ongoing transformation of our economy has been given many names: a ‘post-industrial society’, an ‘information society’, an ‘innovation economy’, a ‘knowledge economy’, a ‘network economy’, a ‘digital economy’, a ‘weightless economy’, and an ‘e-conomy’....
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TL;DR: There is now clear supportive evidence of an acceleration of productivity in service industries that are major purchasers of information technology such as finance and wholesale and retail trade as mentioned in this paper, and these gains reflect not only increased investment in information technology but also complementary innovations in business organization and policy.
Abstract: Used properly, the term 'new e-conomy' is warranted. Since 1995, there has been a wave of innovation associated with both the production and use of information technology that has been translated into improved US economic performance. In particular, there has been a substantial acceleration in trend total factor productivity growth. Most of this acceleration actually took place outside of the computer sector. Almost none of the acceleration was cyclical. There is now clear supportive evidence of an acceleration of productivity in service industries that are major purchasers of information technology such as finance and wholesale and retail trade. These gains reflect not only increased investment in information technology but also complementary innovations in business organization and policy. To be sure, as evidenced by recent financial market volatility, there have been speculative excesses, but these should not obscure the fundamental gains that have been made.
125 citations
Book•
01 Aug 2000
TL;DR: A Nation Transformed by Information as mentioned in this paper is a history of the United States in the Information Age, from management consulting to history to sociology, that is fully integrated and cross-referenced.
Abstract: From the Publisher:
The editors assembled a group of contributors are experts in their particular fields, from management consulting to history to sociology, and worked with them to create a book that is fully integrated and cross referenced. An important new look at American history, A Nation Transformed by Information will interest anyone who wants to understand how the United States has stepped so confidently into the latest Information Age.
122 citations
"The New Economy: facts, impacts and..." refers background in this paper
...The authors conclude that ‘if history is any guide, a small number of large complex enterprises, particularly those experienced in building systems, will continue to lead in commercializing the hardware for today’s Information Age’ (Chandler and Cortada, 2000, p. 289)....
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...The hope of developing countries may lie in the fact that, as Chandler and Cortada (2000) note, the software industry is the most obvious, dramatic and important exception to the big business explanation of the American success story....
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...A recently published book entitled A Nation Transformed by Information, edited by Chandler and Cortada (2000), argues that information has been a driving force in America for 300 years....
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