Economics of Information and the Internet

  1. The Digital Revolution and Information Goods
    1. Economics of Digital Goods
      1. Defining Digital Goods
        1. Pure Digital Goods
          1. Digitized Physical Goods
            1. Digital Services
            2. Cost Structure of Digital Products
              1. Fixed vs. Marginal Costs
                1. First-Copy Costs
                  1. Scalability and Distribution
                    1. Network Infrastructure Costs
                    2. Information Wants to Be Free vs. Expensive
                      1. Arguments for Free Information
                        1. Social Welfare Benefits
                          1. Innovation Spillovers
                          2. Arguments for Costly Information
                            1. Innovation Incentives
                              1. Quality Assurance
                              2. Economic Tensions
                              3. Product Differentiation Strategies
                                1. Versioning and Quality Differentiation
                                  1. Feature-Based Versioning
                                    1. Time-Based Versioning
                                      1. User-Based Versioning
                                      2. Paywalls and Premium Content
                                        1. Hard Paywalls
                                          1. Soft Paywalls
                                            1. Freemium Walls
                                          2. Bundling Strategies
                                            1. Pure Bundling
                                              1. Mixed Bundling
                                                1. Unbundling and Microtransactions
                                                  1. Platform Bundling
                                                  2. Piracy and Unauthorized Distribution
                                                    1. Economic Impact of Piracy
                                                      1. Anti-Piracy Measures
                                                        1. Business Model Responses

                                                    Previous

                                                    1. Foundations of Information Economics

                                                    Go to top

                                                    Next

                                                    3. Network Economics