Теорія інформаційної економіки: зміст і основні суперечності

Ключевые слова: информация, информационная экономика, постиндустриальное общество, интеллектуальная собственность, авторское право, методология, парадигма.

SUMMARY

Nikolaiev Ye.B. Theory of Information Economy: Essence and Key Contradictions. - Manuscript

The Thesis for the Degree of Candidate of Economic Sciences in speciality 08.00.01 - Economic Theory and History of Economic Thought. - SHEE “Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University”, Kyiv, 2011.

The thesis is devoted to the research of the theory of information economy as a concept that studies the influence of information on economic processes. The definitions of the key categories of the theory, its history, peculiarities of the information stage of social development, intellectual production, intellectual property, methodological features of the theory are studied. Inconsistency is defined as an instrumental feature of this theory which is revealed in terminological, substantive, theoretical, methodological spheres.

Economic theory views information as a primary element of economic system and as a component of communications within it. Here information should be understood as data on economic phenomena and processes which reduces the degree of uncertainty of economic players, is alienated from their authors and is converted to messages which can be transferred to other people via oral, written or other means. The thesis explores the characteristics of information which are implied from this definition, and lists the main ways of classifying information. Logical relationships between the terms “data”, “information”, “knowledge”, “wisdom” are studied. Connections between the notions of knowledge economy, information and postindustrial economy, information and postindustrial society are explored.

Scientific papers offer a wide variety of views on the subject of the theory of information economy. The author of the dissertation proposes a structured view of the subject of the theory, and demonstrates that it overlaps the subject of the concept of postindustrial society, which, in its own turn, studies the consequences of the increasing role of services in social development. Theory of information economy studies the process of reproduction of information and information resources in the economy, and the influence of information on the reproduction of other elements of economic system and on socio-economic relations.

Intellectual production is characterised by increasing returns which are an effect where introduction of additional production resources leads to more than proportional growth of production output. The causes and consequences of the effect are determined. Among the reasons for increasing returns are non-scarcity of information, increase of its value in the process of its usage, its ability to self-reproduce. The consequences of the effect include the impossibility to determine optimal production output volume with traditional microeconomic instruments, a perspective for individualization of production on a large scale, market trend towards the creation of “micromonopolies”. Micromonopolies are market structures for comparatively unique products which have similar replacements, but which bear quite high switching costs for the consumers that prevent them from switching to such similar competitive products.

It is shown that the existing economic analysis of intellectual property is normative and fragmented. A classic definition of property states that the two prerequisites for property on any object are efforts of people to create it or to take it from nature and the scarcity of the object in question. This definition, however, is not directly applicable to information since the latter is not scarce.

Some contradictions of intellectual property are demonstrated on the example of copyright. In particular, copyright is a monopoly given by the state to the owner, therefore they are a form of anti-competitive policy. Copyright allows for repeated sales of any intellectual product, which leads to unreasonable income for the owner. Judging by economic efficiency, it's impossible to unambiguously choose between maximum protection of copyright and its rejection, since protection of copyright raises individual efficiency of intellectual production, while its rejection increases social efficiency of reproduction of intellectual products. The state is responsible for choosing between these two opposite modes of copyright and intellectual property law. Nevertheless, current international law forces all the states to introduce harsh regimes of intellectual property protection.

Research into functioning of information economy has a number of methodological features. The results of the research can be exactly opposite depending upon the choice of the analytical methods. There is no universal analytical scheme of studying economic issues which are connected with information. Equally, there is no method of measurring the amount of economic information. The question of what is information is beyond the scope of the theory of information economy. The look-ahead ability of the theory is limited, and its categorial apparatus is still not fully established.

The thesis raises the question of viewing the theory of information economy as a new paradigm in economics. Since this theory is not yet fully integrated and all-inclusive, it so far cannot claim the status of a wholly new, full-fledged research paradigm.

Key words: information, information economy, postindustrial society, intellectual property, copyright, methodology, paradigm.

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