Economic Implications of Agent Technology and E-Commerce.

In the light of the exponential growth of the Internet and World Wide Web, this paper describes, in some detail, existing agents and multiagents applications in the context of e-commerce, and suggests a research agenda for economists in response to these changes in technology and lifestyle. First, several ways where economic theory and, in particular, implementation theory can be used to design and improve the efficiency of e-commerce systems are described. Second, the paper discusses the impact on markets of using software agents. Finally, the paper discusses how economic theory can be used towards the design of the interactions between agents and their users.