Information Costs

The term information is generally assumed to mean a message. It usually takes an audible or visible form and involves a sender and receiver. Information is meant to change the way the receiver perceives something, to have an impact on judgment and behavior. The term cost has traditionally been viewed as the value of inputs that have been used up to produce something. Since the inputs have been used up, they are not available for use anymore. Putting the terms information and cost together adds an interesting twist because the inputs that comprise a message may not be used up and may well be available for other uses. The issue becomes how much someone is willing to pay for information, in other words, what the ...