The National Center for Technology & Law at the George Mason University Law School has launched the Information Economy Project, headed by Prof. Thomas Hazlett, former Chief Economist at the FCC, "to promote quality academic research and sophisticated debate on public policy issues in the Information Economy."

Its thoughtful Mission Statement deserves pondering. Sample:

Third, the economic query of our age centers on the Internet. Is the emergence of the “network of networks” a tribute to government planning, or is it the spontaneous result of competitive markets governed by property rights? Already, a soft consensus has formed in academic circles that the former is a better description than the latter, and policy prescriptions are being written based on this diagnosis. Meanwhile, the economic analysis of institutions revealing powerful insights elsewhere in the economy has failed to receive the serious attention it deserves. The law & economics tradition of Ronald Coase, Harold Demsetz, and Oliver Williamson is essential to understanding the structure of markets in the Information Economy – and vice versa. The essential legal structure of society is being reconsidered in light of productive efficiencies observed in emerging technology markets. The role of property rights in today’s world is closely tied to communications policy.

posted by James DeLong @ 10:30 AM | Academia

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