Economic theory looks at the supply and demand for all sorts of goods. Library and information professionals, in particular, have to be concerned with the supply and demand for information.
This course will introduce basic concepts of economic theory (supply and demand curves, market equilibria, price elasticity, social welfare, etc.) and apply these concepts to the dissemination of information. In addition, we will examine how information goods differ from other sorts of goods and how these differences impact the economics of disseminating information. Finally, we will apply economic theory to specific issues in information services (e.g., user fees, resource sharing, intellectual property); we will focus primarily on the economics of the digital divide.
The course will be partly virtual and partly on-campus. IMPORTANT! The on-campus portion will take place over two weekends: September 13-14 and October 25-26. On the Saturdays, we will meet from 9am to 4pm. On the Sundays, we will meet from 8am to 1pm. (There will be several breaks each day.) The virtual portion will be on WebCT. Course materials, short assignments, and exams will be posted on WebCT during the semester. In addition, WebCT will be used for discussion and communication about the course before and after the weekend sessions. Students will be expected to participate in the online discussion. There will be two exams during the semester. These exams will be posted on WebCT a few days after each of the two weekend sessions. Each of these exams will be due one week after they are posted. During the last few weeks of the semester, students (working in teams of two) will give online presentations about some issue in the economics of information.
| Presentation | 30% |
| Exam One | 20% |
| Exam Two | 20% |
| Short Assignments | 15% |
| Participation | 15% |
Textbook available at the UA bookstore:
Readings available on the web:Kingma, Bruce R. 2001. The Economics of Information: A Guide to Economic and Cost-Benefit Analysis for Information Professionals. 2nd edition. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited.
Readings available through electronic reserves:Hull, B. 2003. "ICT and Social Exclusion: The Role of Libraries." Telematics and Informatics 20:131-42. Wilhelm, Anthony. 2002. Review of The Digital Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth? , ed. Benjamin M. Compaine. The Information Society 18:415-16.
Some highly recommended sources on the web:Chabrán, Richard. 2001. "Immigrants, Global Digital Economies, Cyber Segmentation, and Emergent Information Services." Pp. 131-40 in Immigrant Politics and the Public Library, ed. Susan Luévano-Molina. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. Compaine, Benjamin M. 2001. "Declare the War Won." pp. 315-35 in The Digital Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth?, ed. Benjamin M. Compaine. Cambridge: MIT. Mueller, Milton L. 2001. "Universal Service Policies As Wealth Redistribution." Pp. 179-87 in The Digital Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth?, ed. Benjamin M. Compaine. Cambridge: MIT.
Shapiro, Carl and Hal R. Varian. 1999. Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Boston: Harvard Business School. Varian, Hal R. 1999. "The Information Economy." http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/resources/infoecon/.
This class will have a listserv: IRLS586@listserv.arizona.edu. Please subscribe (see Subscription Information for instructions).
WebCT Code of Academic Integrity SIRLS Computer Requirements
This document was last updated on August 21, 2003.