Private Versus Public Production of Information

• Main Author: KWON, Young Koan
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1982
• Subjects: Accounting
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/734; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0167-2681(82)90009-9
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper re-examines a recent article by Grossman and Stiglitz (1980) where information production is shown to be fundamentally incompatible with decentralized market systems. Based upon their model, public production of information is discussed as a natural alternative. Three main implications of the analysis are: (i) the market can be informationally efficient with public production of information, (ii) there exists an informational equilibrium and the resulting allocation is Pareto efficient, and (iii) although the optimal level of information critically depends upon information users' preferences and endowments, their complete knowledge t the societal level is not necessary for public production of information.