An introduction to Internet Economics

Research on Internet Economics attempts to improve our understanding of the Internet as an economic system. The lack of accepted metrics for economic analysis of the Internet is increasingly problematic, as the Internet grows in scale, scope, and significance to the global economy. This introduction brings together interdisciplinary research on the Internet-a network of networks employing common standards to achieve the technical goal of statistical sharing, the economic goal of positive network externalities, and the policy objective of interoperability. Models and frameworks for Internet technical, economic, and policy analysis are presented in this special issue on Internet Economics of the Journal of Electronic Publishing. Research, engineering, policy, and business issues are addressed in six categories: 1) economics of digital networks, 2) Internet resource allocation and pricing models, 3) responsive pricing, 4) requirements for pricing Internet services, 5) network interconnection and Internet economics, and 6) Internet economics and policy. This article introduces the reader to these topics. We explain why articles in this special issue are grouped in the categories listed above and identify areas for further research to advance knowledge of Internet Economics.