Understanding of the Information Economics Discipline
Lan Luan, Xukun Wang · Advances in economics, business and management research/Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research · 2014
Emerging in the years of 60"s of 20 century, information economics started to be known in China in the years of 80s and led to a research upsurge and study trend, with dramatic growing numbers in information economics related documents (like essays and reports).Economic production, social lives and even academic research bear the stamp of information because of its high osmosis, and Information Economics has naturally attracted the researchers from various research areas.After we have analyzed the research backgrounds of information economics researchers, we find that information economics has built up various relationships with many subjects, especially in management, economy and informatics area. The Origination and Development of Information EconomicsThe origination of information economics was based on the connection between the needs of society and internal development of western economics.Its origination is not accidental, but a necessity resulted from the growth of western economics. Information Economics development in foreign countriesSince its origination in years of 60"s of 20 century, Information Economics development has gone through 3 phases: origination and start up phase, scientific structure building phase, stable growth phase.Origination and start up phase( year of 60"s to 70"s) focused on the basic theory and actual application, which laid the pavement for the Western Economics theories.There were a serial of essays titled information economics during this phase, including both microeconomics research and macroeconomics research.The important results generated from this phase include the following: Information Economics Measurement Regulation from American economist F. Machlup in 1962, and American economist G. Akerlof"s Lemon Market in 1970.In his book, Akerlof mentioned about Un-working Market Theory, and he thought that the information mismatch led to the unworking market.Akerlof argued that the information economics ought to be regarded as a subject.Scientific structure building phase( 70"s to 80"s) generated many beneficial results in the area of Macroresearch and Microresearch.The important research results are as following: Information Economics by American Economist Kenneth J. Arrow in 1972, which was regarded as anchor for information economics area.In 1977, American economist M.V.Porat brought about a set of measurement methodology to monitor and measure country information economy level, which was adopted by OECD.During this period, scientific structure building gradually developed and improved.Besides, American economy committee categorized information economics separated from 1976, and first international information economics academic forum was held in 1979.In 1983, International academic journal Information Economics and Policy was firstly published.Stable growth phase(after 80"s) achieved following important research results.In 1983, American Economist P. Hawken published The Next Generation Economy, which defined the information to be key factor for future society and brought about the idea that information economics will be the "next generation economy" instead of current economics.In 1984, American Economist Alan published Information Economics.In his essay, Alen mentioned that Information Economics is economics under uncertain situation, and developed with global information wave.On the one hand, it corrected and improved the traditional economics theory, and on the other hand,