Economics of Computers

Computer Economics and Background Introduction The computer service industry can be divided into several categories, from dealers to consultants. Founded in 1972, Entré Computer / Executive Business Machines Inc. (EBM) is a sales and service organization for typewriters. However, as corporate markets shifted demand from typewriters to word processors and personal computers, EBM also changed its product line. Meet this need. Now they are working hard to compete in a competitive low margin industry.

In 1991, Alan Kay, one of the founders of modern computers, divided computer economics into three phases. Mainframe is sold in thousands and desktop is sold in millions. Class "Private Computer" He believes these are sold for billions of dollars. Given the number of digits in a unit, Kay points out that each stage of the calculation creates its own economics. Applying mainframe economy to laptops is a costly mistake. Applying the economics of laptops and desktops to private computing is also absurd. In order to understand the microeconomics of internal computing, it is necessary to check the data on its own.

In a recent paper, Roger Backhouse and I believe that a more detailed historical review is needed for computer research on economics, in particular theory and applied economics. Obviously, computers are important: robbing computers, many of modern applied economics is impossible. But the fact that computers are important does not explain how they change economics. One idea that we are advocating is that computers are not simply to promote application work at the expense of theory. They challenge the boundary between theory and applied work: running an agent - based simulation or writing a matching algorithm in a mechanism design does not appear to fall under either of these two categories. In the past and the future, the extent and speed at which economists adapt to this change is not only affected by the hardware economics laboratory and the research department.