The Governance of Knowledge Commons

Abstract

From Introduction:

"Important shifts in the economics of knowledge have occurred in the recent years. Consensus on the analysis of the public good characters of knowledge has been first contrasted and eventually substituted by the new argument about the quasi-private nature of technological knowledge. The appreciation of demand-side externalities and external knowledge at large has called for a new interest upon the mechanisms of governance upon which the production and the distribution of knowledge builds upon. The understanding of multiple equilibria and micro-macro feed-backs calls back the attention to the crucial role of the economic policy. This had important consequences on the institutional design for the organization of the production and distribution of knowledge.

"This process can be summarized in three stages can be steps. The first recalls the ingredients of the great swing from the build-up of the public knowledge commons to the wave of privatizations and liberalization. The identification of the central role of external knowledge in the production of new knowledge marks the second step, where the discovery of the knowledge trade-off stresses the role of the governance in all interactions and exchanges for knowledge. The understanding of the instability of market interactions, in the production and distribution of technological knowledge, should pave the way to the third step, one where a new scope for an economic policy able to manage dynamic coordination issues is identified."