Current pricing and charging methods for the Internet are not based on actual usage of this service, which leads to unfairness and more important, it does not deliver the right signals through financial incentives to network providers to upgrade critical links of their networks. The development...

The aim of this paper is to show that the network externalities theory provides a useful framework to analyse the introduction and further development of the new electronic payment instruments currently being launched. To that end the paper presents a pragmatic (and selective) reading of the...

Electronic money seems to become a new form of means of payment, not only for the Internet. It therefore will compete with other means of payment as central bank money and credit cards. There is an extensive literature on the technical and security aspects of the several forms of electronic...

Lacking payment systems become a bottleneck for the vision of the Information Economy. In many cases, the payments of a fraction of a cent, the so-called micropayments, are of particular interest. In this paper we propose a framework to evaluate the payment systems. The framework consists of a...

With existing technology, it is already possible for personal agents to schedule meetings for their users, to write the small print of an agreement, and for agents to search the Internet for the cheapest price. But serious negotiation cranks the difficulty of the problem up several notches. In...

This paper intends to highlight the emerging force of the Internet as an advertising medium. The economic functions of Internet advertising are examined. Moreover, the paper aims to evaluate the relative impacts on optimal advertising models. Our discussion also includes analysis of associated...

The public debate on the regulation of the Internet and on cryptography policy during the last years has shown a conflict between the authorities' goal of crime prevention and the net users' need for privacy and net security. In this paper, this conflict is examined from an economic point of...