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• Scarcity and Uncertainty Reduction by Institutions

  Laszlo Csorba

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  109

  Institutions are not equally able to reduce scarcity and uncertainty. If institutions were classified from this point of view we would acquire a new analyticaltool to examine institutions in the past the present or the future. Scarcity and uncertainty appear continuously and institutions can manage them only by a greater increase in individual responsibility. However, this also increases the danger of the disintegration of community. We can see this application in practice by surveying the Hungarian pension system over the past 100 years.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: A11, B52, G18, G23

• Attention in the world of information goods - an analysis of scarcity

  1-20

  Balazs Hamori

  Views:

  159

  Attention as a form of service can also act as a source for the crearion of value. In its functional and market interconnections, attention is product of labour (product or service) and, as an exchangeable good, is naturally exchanged for money. The system of sxchange provides a significant amount of accurate information about the division of attention within society - the degree to which it reflects recognition by the individual and the community. The forum of exchange of attention can be viewed as the openness of society, while the internet is its international market place. However attention also played an important role in the 'old economy'; indeed in some cases attention was the central tool in its creation. Direct, personal services aimed at human beings (teaching, legal and health services) always demanded great attention. If nowadays a product itself is the main part of the service provided, attention becomes an important and decisive resource in the use of a product. The growing individualisation in the provision of goods and services, the increasingly direct interaction between people, and last, but not least, the transformation to a virtual level, necessarily increases the demand for attention in economic transactions- Unlike traditional goods, the outstanding feature of services, and more specifically intellectual goods, is the ability of consumers to devote sufficient time and attention to their use and to acquiring the necessary competence to use them. For the providers of these goods the ability to hold the attention of consumers/clients is often the crucial feature of competitive success. Praise, excellence and prestige are all manifestations of acquired attention. In this sense attention acts as a store of value, although it cannot be dircetly and easily compared with acquisition mechanism associated with money and other products. The economy of attention raises questions rather than offering defensible theses or clear statements. Even less does it allow us to claim that a theory could be crystallised in this field to explain how the expanding phenomenon of the non-material sector of the economy function in the economy as a whole. There is no doubt however that attention is a supremely important subject of research in the new economy.