Costly Information and Individual and Social Resource Allocation

该项目研究信息在个人决策和市场结构中的作用，市场结构使资源在社会上重新分配。潜在的主题是，认识到知识既不是免费的，也不是无限昂贵的，这对个人重新分配其资源（包括其信息储备）的方式有许多影响，以及个人之间的交易，通过这种交易，商品和知识都得以转移。将研究信息在个人决策中的作用，作为为经济活动提供一般模型这一更为根本问题的基础。标准经济理论所理解的市场仅仅近似于经济过程，只有在某些信息成本消失的有限情况下才有效。这项研究的结果将首先是概念性的，而不是技术性的，尽管在这个过程中必须提出许多分析性的问题。此外，它提供了更好的理解经济制度的理论基础，包括企业，市场和市场均衡。

This project studies the role of information in individual decision making and in the structure of markets by which resources are reallocated socially. The underlying theme is that recognizing that knowledge is neither free nor infinitely costly has many implications for the means by which individuals reallocate their resources, including their stock of information, and for transactions among individuals by which both goods and knowledge are transferred. The role of information in individual decisions is to be studied as a basis for the still more fundamental issue of providing a general model for economic activity. The market as understood in standard economic theory merely approximates economic processes, and is valid only in limiting cases where certain information costs vanish. The outcome of this research will be above all conceptual rather than technical, although numerous analytic questions must be raised in the process. Also, it provides better understanding of the foundations of the theory of economic institutions including firms, markets, and market equilibrium.