Abstract
This panel will discuss and debate the best strategies for pricing information goods such as news, online entertainment, software and even academic research and teaching materials, with a special focus on the emerging information marketplace enabled by the Internet. The pricing of information goods presents special difficulties for conventional markets (e.g., Varian 1995). In particular, digital copies of information goods are equivalent in all respects to the originals, and can be created and distributed almost without cost via the emerging information infrastructure. From a societal perspective, free (or nearly free) information would be efficient in a static sense: all consumers who valued information more than its marginal cost would gain access to it. However, this price would not generate revenues to provide incentives for the creation of new information goods.
Recommended Citation
Bakos, Yannis; Brynjolfsson, Erik; Massey, Bob; Metcalfe, Bob; and Varian, Hal, "Panel 3 How Should Information be Priced? Winning Strategies for the Digital Economy" (1996). ICIS 1996 Proceedings. 61.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis1996/61