Competitiveness of New Industries

"Information and communication technology (ICT) is considered to be one of the 'drivers of growth' by the OECD, while others regard it as a new type of general-purpose technology. Countries not able to establish themselves successfully in the ICT-related industries run the risk of losing important growth opportunities." "Competitiveness of New Industries examines the extent to which the different institutional frameworks in Japan, the United States and Germany have encouraged and will continue to support the potential of ICTs. This is essentially a question of how rules should be designed in order to reach desired results - a traditional problem in economic policy. It has recently gained new impetus with regard to ICT industries due to the existence of network externalities and the public good character of some ICT subsectors. The volume also discusses the degree to which economic actors are capable of designing ICTs in the institutional framework within which they operate - a discussion that is strongly connected to the long-standing issue of path dependency."--BOOK JACKET.