Economic Fundamentals of the Knowledge Society

This article provides an introduction to fundamental issues in the development of new knowledge-based economies. After placing their emergence in historical perspective and proposing a theoretical framework that distinguishes knowledge from information, the authors characterise the specific nature of such economies. They go on to deal with some of the major issues concerning the new skills and abilities required for integration into the knowledge-based economy; the new geography that is taking shape (where physical distance ceases to be such an influential constraint); the conditions governing access to both information and knowledge, not least for developing countries; the uneven development of scientific, technological (including organisational) knowledge across different sectors of activity; problems concerning intellectual property rights and the privatisation of knowledge; and the issues of trust, memory and the fragmentation of knowledge.

[1]  E. von Hippel,et al.  Sources of Innovation , 2016 .

[2]  J. Goody.  The Domestication of the Savage Mind , 1982 .

[3]  Brian J. Loasby,et al.  The mind and method of the economist , 1989 .

[4]  P. David.  The Dynamo and the Computer: An Historical Perspective on the Modern Productivity Paradox , 1990 .

[5]  Umberto Eco,et al.  The Original and the Copy , 1992 .

[6]  P. David,et al.  Toward a new economics of science , 1994 .

[7]  Paul A. David,et al.  Information Distribution and the Growth of Economically Valuable Knowledge: A Rationale for Technological Infrastructure Policies , 1996 .

[8]  B. Lundvall,et al.  Employment and Growth in the Knowledge-Based Economy , 1996 .

[9]  Erik Brynjolfsson,et al.  Could the Internet Balkanize Science? , 1996, Science.

[10]  John Irvine,et al.  Equipping science for the 21st century , 1997 .

[11]  Frances Cairncross.  The death of distance : how the communications revolution will change our lives , 1997 .

[12]  Don E. Schultz,et al.  The Death of Distance ‐ How the Communications Revolution will Change Our Lives , 1998 .

[13]  Paul A. David,et al.  Common Agency Contracting and the Emergence of "Open Science" Institutions , 1998 .

[14]  J. Sempsey.  The death of distance: How the communications revolution will change our lives , 1998 .

[15]  Dominique Foray,et al.  Science, technology and market , 1999 .

[16]  Paul A. David,et al.  The explicit economics of knowledge codification and tacitness , 2000 .

[17]  Scott Stern,et al.  The Diffusion of Science-Driven Drug Discovery: Organizational Change in Pharmaceutical Research , 1999 .

[18]  P. David,et al.  American Macroeconomic Growth in the Era of Knowledge-Based Progress: The Long-Run Perspective , 2000 .

[19]  Eric A. von Hippel,et al.  How Open Source Software Works: 'Free' User-to-User Assistance? , 2000 .

[20]  Paul A. David,et al.  Digital Technologies, Research Collaborations and the Extension of Protection for Intellectual Property in Science: Will Building 'Good Fences' Really Make 'Good Neighbors'? , 2001 .

[21]  Paul A. David,et al.  Productivity growth prospects and the new economy in historical perspective , 2005 .

[22]  Joel Mokyr,et al.  The rise and fall of the factory system: technology, firms, and households since the industrial revolution A comment , 2001 .

[23]  R. Mansell.  Inside the Communication Revolution , 2002 .

[24]  W. Edward Steinmueller,et al.  Virtual Communities and the New Economy , 2002 .

[25]  C. P. Goodman,et al.  The Tacit Dimension , 2003 .

[26]  Paul A. David,et al.  The Digital Technology Boomerang: New Intellectual Property Rights Threaten Global “Open Science” , 2005 .

[27]  Paul A. David,et al.  Understanding Digital Technology’s Evolution and the Path of Measured Productivity Growth: Present and Future in the Mirror of the Past , 2005 .