ABSTRACT
There is a growing insistence that economic systems are facing a period of structural change, this being mainly characterised by a transition from a commodity exchange manufacturing system towards a weightless one. Advanced economies are facing the ultimate transition towards a service economy with a declining share of the gross national product generated in the manufacturing of physical goods. In such a transition the direct content of knowledge is enhanced and appears more and more important. This new context makes even more evident the limitations of an economic analysis traditionally based upon the biunivocal relationship between prices and quantities in all adjustment processes where changes in knowledge and in its distribution among agents could not take place.
