Information Rules

In a marketplace that depends so thoroughly on cutting-edge information technology, can classic economic principles still offer any real strategic value? Yes! say Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian. In Information Rules, they reveal that many conventional economic concepts can provide the insight and understanding necessary to succeed in the information age. Shapiro and Varian argue that if managers seriously want to develop effective strategies for competing in the new economy, they must understand the fundamental economics of information technology. Whether information takes the form of software code or recorded music, is published in a book or magazine, or even posted on a website, managers must know how to evaluate the consequences of pricing, protecting, and planning new versions of information products, services, and systems. The first book to distill the economics of information and networks into practical business strategies, Information Rules is a guide to the winning moves that can help business leaders-from writers, lawyers, and finance professionals to executives in the entertainment, publishing, and hardware and software industries--navigate successfully through the information economy.

Carl Shapiro is the Transamerica Professor of Business Strategy, Haas School of Business and Department of Economics, UC Berkeley. From 1995 to 1996, he served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of Economics, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice. Hal Varian is the Class of 1944 Professor and the Dean of the School of Information Management and Systems, with joint appointments at Haas School of Business and Department of Economics, UC Berkeley.