ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on why information poses special problems for a "market" or "mixed" economy and then suggests some and possible future solutions to these problems. The economist has generally held several different views of information and the role of information in our society. A taxonomy of information types is also presented with the hope that the specification will present information about information itself, as well as give further insight into the problems information presents to the economist. The public good characteristics indicate that the same bit of information may be owned by more than one person. In studies of both the functioning of markets and the "failures" of markets—both real and potential—economists have identified several characteristics of a market commodity, either a good or service, that may lead to difficulties. The two fundamental issues for public policy in the area are public good attributes in the information dissemination process and the scale economies in the dissemination process.
