This volume engages the profound impact upon economics and related disciplines by the growth and improvements in information systems. Contributors survey many of the most significant issues in economics and our progress on them. The chapters in this volume focus on various individual interrelated subjects regarding the economics of information systems: the adoption and diffusion of information technologies; the pricing of data communications; the ways firms organize and transform themselves as information is better captured and disseminated within and across firms and customers; the means and tactics firms us to compete with each other; the manner in which firms interact with and distribute goods to customers; the methods and mechanisms for anonymous and infrequent interactions between users, firms, and customers in far reaching locations; and the type and use of information on customers and their behavior. These issues span areas of economics and disciplines within business schools. The volume provides a survey of our current state of knowledge in theses areas, while simultaneously framing the most fruitful directions for future research. The "Handbooks in Information Systems" is a comprehensive survey of the field of Information Systems. Each individual Volume gives the state-of-the-art of a sub-field of the Information Systems area. Volumes are divided into Chapters written by leading experts in the field.
