Weightless Economy Research Articles

The importance of the 'weightless economy' and investment in intangible assets

The economic landscape of the present and future is no longer shaped by tangible assets, but by intangible assets. Several decades ago, William Tenn wrote a science-fiction story in which aliens, as interstellar traders, claimed on their business cards to be 'dealers in intangibles'. Professor Danny Quah from London invented the term 'weightless economy', referring to economic activity whose value does not consist of physical products. In a weightless economy, success comes from knowing how to locate and combine specific pieces of information. The goal of this analysis is to provide an overview of possibilities and problems in valuation of intangible assets. In this qualitative and quantitative analysis, authors used comparation method, analysis and synthesis method, inductive and deductive method, and a local and international literature review.

Total Factor Productivity, Demographic Traits and ICT: Empirical Analysis for Asia

This paper advances a model to explain the total factor productivity in Asian countries, most of which are labor surplus and are endowed with substantial human capital. Such promising demographic potentials are considered as complementary factors to use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Population with such favorable demographic traits and access to ICT results in higher Total factor productivity (TFP). We call this as Demo-Tech-TFP Model and is tested by using data for 2000-2010 of 24 Asian countries. Econometric concerns like presence of endogenous and/or predetermined covariates and small time-series and cross-sectional dimensions of panel dataset are tackled by using System Generalized Method of Moments (SYS-GMM). Results show considerable support for the Demo-Tech-TFP hypothesis. Need is to design such models that suit the local demography and patterns of technological diffusion currently taking place in developing countries.Keywords: Information and communication technology (ICT), Total Factor Productivity (TFP), Demographic features, Generalized Method of MomentsIntroductionFrom pre-historic times man has under- taken to store, recollect, and process infor- mation as a source of value. Starting from image carving in stone walls to today's digi- tal technology, the information is handled in a number of ways [24]. The ICT revolution is crucial insofar as it involves technologies geared to the production and dissemination of knowledge and information. These new technologies, that first emerged in the 1950s and then really took off with the advent of the Internet, have breath-taking potential [15]. ICT has affected agriculture, industry and services sectors of economies world over like no other technology in past [2]. Terms like information economy, digital economy, e-economy, weightless economy, paperless economy have been floated over the last 3 decades to term this readily evolving kind of economy. For instance, one of the pioneering works in this regard was a report by [35]. Later, during mid-90s term 'New Economy' was introduced to represent the marvelous growth in software industry in US.In his famous treatise, 'Major Economic Cy- cles', [30] has pointed out the existence of tides of surging economic activity. These economic cycles are called as 'Kondratiev Waves'. There is growing consensus that the rise of 'New economy' during 1990s and the burst of the 'dotcom' bubble in 2001 can be the 5th Kondratiev Wave and the stimulus behind it is ICT [30].2 ICT in Asian RegionAsia as one of the densely populated regions of the world has shown high demand for ICT products after the falling prices of ICT equipment during the last quarter of 20th cen- tury. Policy reforms of deregulation and pri- vatization in Asian countries like India, Paki- stan, China and Indonesia and has enabled the spread of ICT [39].A dataset of 24 countries is included in em- pirical analysis for the time span 2000-2010 depending on the availability of data. The chosen indicators are fixed broadband inter- net subscribers (FBBS), fixed internet sub- scribers per 100 inhabitants (FIS), internet users per 100 inhabitants (INTU), fixed tele- phone lines per 100 inhabitants (FTL), in- formation & communication technology maturation index (ICTMI), internet users per 100 inhabitants (INTU) and mobile cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (MBLC). ICTMI (Information and Commu- nication Technology Maturation Index) is in- spired from Information and Communication Development Index (IDI) in [42] 'Measuring Information Society' published by Interna- tional Telecommunication Union (ITU).3 Literature SurveyStudies at macroeconomics level showing the impact of demographic factors and ICT on TFP are, to our knowledge, scarce. [20] ex- plore the ICT-productivity relationship in Spanish firms. Their innovation was to intro- duce a set of organizational variables (work- ers' qualifications, management attitude and process innovation) which would support the ICT to have its impact on organizational productivity. …

Book Reviews

Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University reviews, “The Prosperity of Vice: A Worried View of Economics” by Daniel Cohen. The EconLit Abstract of this book begins: “English translation of La prospérité du vice: Une introduction (inquiète) à l'économie (2009). Examines the immaterial globalization of information technology as an answer to the risks of perpetual economic growth. Discusses genesis; the birth of the modern world; Malthus's law; unbound Prometheus; perpetual growth; the economic consequences of the war; the great crisis and its lessons; the golden age and its crisis; the end of solidarities; war and peace; the return of India and China; the end of history and the West; the ecological crash; the financial crash; and the weightless economy. Cohen is Professor of Economics at the École Normale Supérieure and the University of Paris I. Index.”

Can Ideas be Capital? Factors of Production in the Postindustrial Economy: A Review and Critique

Economic and social relations are undergoing radical change, expressed in such concepts as “knowledge economy,” “weightless economy,” “postindustrial society,” and “information society.” The literature suggests the arrival of a distinct new factor of production—intellectual capital—replacing or perhaps supplementing land, labor, and capital. We give a historically informed theoretical exposition of capital as the durable result of past production processes, transforming future production while not being transformed itself and associated with a particular economic actor. We then construct a taxonomy of the possible characteristics and location of intellectual capital in postindustrial production.

Dematerializing Local Economies: A Case for ad hoc Governance

Part of the decentring process that has evolved with the relative empowerment of sub-national actors has permitted the growth of policy networks. This paper explores which type of governance structure is required to affect unemployment and growth rates when the economy comprises workers in dematerialized firms. Governance is found to influence the regional success of a ‘weightless economy’, but not in a manner that necessarily requires precise strata. Instead, as dematerialized firms are composed of potentially highly mobile workers, policies should be geared towards attracting (and keeping) mobile workers (not companies) and hence governance needs to be flexible and ad hoc to meet the locational tastes of such workers. Benefits will then spill over into the locale through increased aggregate demand for tangible goods, thereby reducing local unemployment and stimulating local growth.

Vom Produzenten zum Dienstleister: Irrweg oder Perspektive?

Service-orientation as a management-strategy is nothing new at all in mechanical engineering. The more it is surprising that just this branch is recommended to give up its orientation to physical products and change itself into a full-service-industry. The reasons for the recommended change of policy are not due to a service-deficit of mechanical engineering, but are to be found in the attempt to adjust the branch to the requirements of shareholder-value-capitalism. Mechanical engineering seems to be well prepared for this challenge, but would be ill advised to disconnect its competences in services from the physical product in surrendering itself to the weightless economy.

Matching Demand and Supply in a Weightless Economy: Market-Driven Creativity With and Without IPRs

Many cultural products have the same non-rival nature as scientific knowledge. They therefore face identical difficulties in creation and dissemination. One traditional view says market failure is endemic - societies tolerate monopolistic inefficiency in intellectual property (IP) protection to incentivize the creation and distribution of intellectual assets. This Paper examines that trade-off in dynamic, representative agent general equilibrium, and characterizes socially efficient creativity. Markets for intellectual assets protected by IP rights can produce too much or too little innovation.

Discussion of Matching Demand and Supply in a Weightless Economy: Market-driven Creativity with and without IPRs

Discussion of Matching Demand and Supply in a Weightless Economy: Market-driven Creativity with and without IPRs

New media, the new economy and new spaces

This paper counters proponents of the ‘weightless economy’ who have suggested the ‘death of distance’ in relation to economic and social activities that use the worldwide web (WWW). An analysis of new media developers in New York’s ‘Silicon Alley’ demonstrates that place and distance are still important. The most important aspect of this co-location is the possibility of social interaction. This paper points to the value of analysis of the material practice of the social (and the economic and cultural). The notion of ‘untraded dependencies’ is developed through looking at its manifestation and constitution in the specificity of space, time and economic activity.

Internet cluster emergence

Internet development holds the promise of transmitting economic value across physical space at zero marginal cost. In such a ‘weightless economy’, what factors matter for the location of economic activity and thus for economic development? This paper sketches a model of spatial dynamics over a three-dimensional globe, where transportation costs do not matter. The paper develops conditions under which clusters of activity emerge.

Economics: The weightless economy

Critical QuarterlyVolume 39, Issue 4 p. 92-98 Economics: The weightless economy Diane Coyle, Diane Coyle Economics Editor, the IndependentSearch for more papers by this author Diane Coyle, Diane Coyle Economics Editor, the IndependentSearch for more papers by this author First published: 03 February 2004 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8705.00133Citations: 7AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume39, Issue4December 1997Pages 92-98 RelatedInformation