Information Economy Project
Welcome to the Information Economy Project
The Information Economy Project of the National Center for Technology and Law seeks to promote quality academic research and sophisticated debate on public policy issues in the Information Economy. These involve, among other topics, how governments regulate communications networks, the role of antitrust in software, computer chips and online services, the effect of media content controls, and how intellectual property (IP) rules are challenged by the advent of innovative technologies.
Public policy in the Information Economy is crucial for at least three reasons. First, government regulation of communications inherently invokes free speech issues. History demonstrates that, while economic regulation has largely been viewed as separate and distinct from First Amendment concerns, regulatory actions have dramatically increased – or decreased – freedoms. Abolition of the Fairness Doctrine, for instance, permitted political discourse to flourish in broadcasting; deregulation of cable television programming has ushered in robust ideological competition among cable TV networks; and regulatory forbearance has allowed a marketplace of ideas to take root online. Conversely, policies that have deterred investment in advanced networks – including cable TV rate regulation, “must carry” rules protecting broadcast TV against multi-channel video competitors, network sharing mandates for cable modem and digital subscriber line services, and too-parsimonious spectrum allocations for wireless technologies – undermine free speech. The success of democracy is tied to communications policy.
Second, the centrality of information markets in the global economy means that efficient sector policies drive prosperity. A legal framework that incentivizes investment in advanced technologies, aids the emergence of rival telecommunications networks, efficiently governs the use of radio spectrum, and properly protects the ownership of intellectual property will have profoundly positive effects on the wealth of society. The success of our modern economy is tied to communications policy.
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.
The Information Economy Project supports the study of public policy with an empirical focus that has brought great analytical progress elsewhere. This approach features a core research commitment to the assessment of alternative regulatory regimes. Just as the emergence of law & economics in the 1960s placed a new discussion – rooted in actual results to compare to the claimed benefits of government policy – at the heart of ongoing regulatory debates, the Information Economy Project aims to introduce new terms, evidence, and analysis into the evolving discussion over communications policy.