The New Economy and Beyond

What is the New Economy, what makes it new, and what are the implications for antitrust, regulation and macroeconomic policy? Providing a non-technical and compelling analysis of the modern macro-economy, the contributors to this volume, eminent scholars all, provide their views on the New Economy from a variety of perspectives. The phrase 'The New Economy' means many things to many people. It is often used to refer to the information economy, the high-tech economy, or to the explosive growth of the World Wide Web. It has also been used to refer to the expansion and stock market boom of the last decade. Despite these confusions and excesses in the term's usage, there is indeed something new about the New Economy. The initial set of three chapters explores what may be the defining feature - the resurgence of productivity growth in the United States in the 1990s and its link to the IT revolution. Macroeconomic policy challenges are also discussed. The second set of papers concentrates on what is perhaps the second defining feature of the New Economy - the idea of network economies. The contributors consider challenges for regulatory policy, look at internet pricing policies, and challenge some aspects of network economics. The volume concludes with a discussion of how the US postal service, an important exemplar of the changing world, responds to competition. Students, scholars and all those interested in gaining a better understanding of the global economy will find this volume a valuable resource.