‘Innovation and information in the digital economy (IIED)’

Roberto Burguet Verde, Jacobus Petrus Maria Hurkens, Vaiva Petrikaite, IAE-CSIC; Fabrizio Germano, Pompeu Fabra University; and Tomás Rodríguez Barraquer, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB).

This project, framed within the discipline known as information economics, pursues a three-way goal from a single starting point: the falling costs of data storage, transfer and processing.

The team will analyze the impact of these lower costs, and easier access, on such diverse dimensions as: information quality and citizens’ knowledgeableness about current affairs (new technologies have put information within reach of everyone in almost limitless volumes, which may have direct repercussions on information quality); the innovation and employment-promoting mechanisms provided by new digital technologies (like micro-sponsorship or crowdfunding), which could help dynamize the entrepreneurial fabric; and the consequences for targeted advertising and marketing of data gathering on digital service users.