Information and the Change in the Paradigm in Economics

The research for which George Akerlof, Mike Spence, and I are being recognized is part of a larger research program which, today, embraces hundreds, perhaps thousands, of researchers around the world. In this lecture, I want to set the particular work which was sited within this broader agenda, and that agenda within the broader perspective of the history of economic thought. I hope to show that Information Economics represents a fundamental change in the prevailing paradigm within economices. Problems of information are central to understanding not only market economics but also political economy, and in the last section of this lecture, I explore some of the implications of information imperfections for political process.