As economic activity has become more information-intensive and ideas about the information society have been canvassed widely, information technology has overshadowed thinking about the role of communication and information. In the advanced economies investment in information-handling equipment has grown rapidly in importance and almost throughout the world telecommunications facilities are advocated as the leading edge of development.This wide-ranging collection charts the responses of the economics discipline to these changes, initially slowly but with gathering pace, as communication and information have moved from the sidelines to centre stage.

This book will be an indispensible reference source by all those in the economics community, those interested in information science, library studies and communication.