(A) the market allocation of information resources
The market allocation of information resources is based on scattered information such as market price, market supply and demand changes, and both sides of information resources can choose freely. In a sense, the market is an economic system and economic operation mode that is self-regulated by the law of value, which corresponds to "planning" or "state regulation".
The market allocation of information resources is based on incomplete and asymmetric market conditions. The market allocation of information resources is to eliminate or reduce the uncertainty in information market activities through economic information or market signals, so as to realize the allocation of information resources. Due to the characteristics of market information itself, market segmentation, information dissemination system and the "finiteness" of people, it is impossible for market participants to obtain all the information resources they need for free. On the other hand, there are always some individuals among the market participants who hold information resources that other market participants don't know but need. In some cases, this information may be monopolized by the holder and cannot be disseminated. However, in some cases, market participants who have information hope that the information they have can be effectively provided to other members of society. However, individuals who have information are reluctant to provide information to other individuals who have not obtained it for free. On the contrary, in some cases, providing information requires the individual who owns the information to pay the cost. For the supply and demand sides, the relationship between supply and demand can be automatically adjusted through market price information to complete the transaction of information resources, so as to optimize the market allocation of information resources through the interaction of market mechanism elements such as price mechanism, supply and demand mechanism and competition mechanism. Practice has proved that the market mechanism can develop and allocate information resources according to the recent demand of information resources consumers, and directly restrict the flow and velocity of information resources through the changes of market price information and market supply and demand information, thus helping to alleviate the contradiction of satisfying infinite diversity demand with limited and relatively scarce information resources and playing a good guiding role in the short-term effective allocation of information resources.
In actual economic activities, especially in developing countries, the market system is not mature enough, and the market mechanism itself still has many defects. The resources in the market cannot flow completely freely, and there are many obstacles between regions and industries. Price signals often can't truly reflect the scarcity of resources in time, so the market mechanism can't automatically and effectively allocate resources, which makes the laissez-faire free market deviate from the best state. These problems also exist in the organizational mechanism of the information market, which has some insurmountable defects in the market allocation of information resources, mainly in the following aspects:
(1) The information market itself cannot guarantee a market structure that is most conducive to information production;
(2) The market cannot automatically create a good external environment and formulate laws and policies related to information activities;
(3) The actual market information is not completely transparent. There are known "white information", half-knowledge "gray information" and unknown "black information" in market information. The existence of this situation, coupled with the market system and market mechanism, can not be perfect. Both the supply and demand sides of information resources can only predict and judge the next action according to the current price information and market supply and demand information, which makes the economic activities in the information market very random and blind. That is to say, although market information is transmitted quickly and agilely, market supervision naturally has the lag of post-event supervision, which determines that the speed of market supervision is relatively slow. In addition, market supervision is mainly based on the change of market information, which easily leads to the deviation of market supervision objectives and high market supervision cost.
(4) Information products and information production have some special attributes and laws. Compared with the general market, the resource allocation function of the information market is relatively weak. The reasons are highlighted in the following aspects:
First, information has external effects. Information goods and information services have both positive and negative external effects. When there is a positive external effect, the marginal income of information production is less than the marginal social income, and producers hold information but are unwilling to invest in information production, resulting in insufficient information production and ineffective information resource allocation; When it has negative external effects, it will impose costs on consumers or other producers who do not directly consume information goods and services in the market, thus making the information market deviate from equilibrium and the allocation of information resources invalid.
Second, the public nature of information. This attribute of information resources, that is, the problem of "hitchhiking" caused by the non-exclusiveness and non-consumption of information consumption, makes the cost of information producers unable to be automatically and effectively compensated through the market mechanism, thus leading to insufficient production.
Third, the monopoly of information commodities. The monopoly of information goods and information services is manifested in two aspects: first, the initial cost of information goods and information services is very high, because they can be copied in large quantities at almost no cost, that is, the marginal cost is very low and the marginal income is increasing, which makes the first batch of R&D developers form a monopoly position in production. The joint consumption of information products will form a "locking" effect on consumers and further strengthen the monopoly position of market leaders; Second, the production of information is creative, and the protection of its legitimate rights and interests requires the law to exclude the enjoyment of information commodities and form a monopoly. At this time, monopoly price will be formed, which will make the market price higher than the marginal cost, resulting in invalid market allocation of information resources.
Fourth, there is also an information activity that is not directly market-oriented and is not profitable. The development of basic information activities such as education and basic research is not for business purposes, and the market mechanism cannot adjust itself.
Therefore, the market allocation of information resources is better at short-term allocation, and it is easier to realize the optimal allocation of information resources when the market information channels are very smooth and the cost of information acquisition and information interaction is very low. However, in the real economic environment with incomplete information, especially under the conditions of unfavorable selection and immoral behavior, it is difficult for market mechanism to realize the optimal allocation of information resources.
(B) the planned allocation of information resources
Information resources are infinitely rich, but compared with people's current demand for information resources and professional demand, the supply of information resources is obviously insufficient, and the price of information resources cannot be adjusted completely according to the change of supply and demand ratio. Moreover, the information system in real life is not perfect, and both the supply and demand sides of information resources can not get the useful information they need in time in the market. In other words, the market adjustment process is carried out under the condition of incomplete information. The role of market mechanism is limited, so it is absolutely necessary to find a new way to allocate information resources. Planned allocation of information resources can overcome the weakness of market allocation and give play to its advantages.
The planned allocation of information resources refers to the government's use of economic, legal, administrative, persuasion and other means to allocate existing information resources and obtain information resources in accordance with the overall goal of information economy development, and to develop and utilize information resources. The planned allocation of information resources inevitably requires the country to have an authoritative organization such as the Information Resources Management Committee to standardize information classification, stipulate information exchange channels and ensure the normal development and utilization of information resources.
The planned allocation of information resources by the government mainly relies on three tools:
(1) financial instruments. Promote the development of information industry through direct investment in education, scientific research and information infrastructure construction, thus driving the growth of the whole national economy;
(2) tax tools. Tax relief for technological innovation activities and high-tech enterprises, and encourage innovation activities;
(3) Industrial policy tools. The government can guide and promote the upgrading of industrial structure and stimulate and promote the development of knowledge-intensive industries through industrial policies.
Through these tools, the government can grasp and adjust the rational distribution and utilization of information resources in the whole society from a macro perspective.
Planning and allocating information resources has its obvious advantages. Through the government's planned allocation, information resources can achieve the goals of macro-balance of information economy, coordination of internal structure of information industry, protection of market competition and optimization of overall benefits of information economy.
First of all, there are many factors that affect the total supply and total demand of social information. Therefore, in order to realize the rapid and sustainable development of information economy, the government must take government actions to allocate information resources according to the total supply and demand information and price information of information resources.
Secondly, the information industry includes communication industry, database industry and information consulting industry. Whether its internal structure is reasonable and its development ratio is coordinated depends on the macro-control of the government, and the planned allocation of information resources can realize this adjustment.
Third, with the rapid development of social economy and the support of highly developed modern information technology, the scope of information resources is getting wider and wider, but there are more and more information confidentiality and information barriers. In the information society, enterprises, institutions or departments with a large amount of information resources often unite in some form to form departmental monopoly, regional monopoly or "natural monopoly". Different forms of monopoly have different functions. Some monopolies are agreements, such as copyright, which are designed to help realize the value of information goods and thus promote the production and supply of information goods. If the value of an information commodity cannot be realized, its reproduction and the production of similar products will be affected, and the supply will be relatively insufficient. Some monopolies are deliberately created by manufacturers to maximize their own interests, aiming at limiting the enjoyment of information resources. Faced with different forms of monopoly of information resources, the government can take measures to protect favorable monopoly and limit unfavorable monopoly, which is the advantage of planned allocation of information resources.
In addition, the development of information economy pursues the optimization of the overall benefit, and the economic benefit is not only the problem of the departments that develop and utilize information resources, but also the information economic benefit of the whole society. The government's planned allocation of information resources can reduce the irrational behavior of information resources consumers, avoid seeking personal gain between regions and avoid the external negative effects caused by the use of information resources by a few economic organizations.
On the one hand, the planned allocation of information resources can overcome the shortage of market allocation of information resources, avoid the lag and blindness of market allocation, and reduce the waste of information resources; On the other hand, it is also an objective requirement for the development of the information industry. In the national economy, the information industry is a new industry and a leading industry. The development of leading industries has greatly promoted the national economy, but the social and economic environment for its development is relatively poor, which requires the input, support and guidance of the government. For China, it is of great significance to allocate resources in a planned way. China has a low starting point for economic development and a low level of industrialization, so it needs to complete the dual tasks of industrialization and informatization. Under this economic development level and strategic task, the development of information industry is facing a worse social and economic environment such as low productivity, backward technology and weak information concept, and the information industry is ahead of the actual level of China's economic development. Therefore, the planned allocation of information resources is conducive to accelerating the pace of informatization and the development of national economy in China.
The planned distribution of information resources also has shortcomings. When the government allocates information resources, it is difficult to grasp enough market information and its control over the private market reaction is limited. Even if the Government has sufficient information, it will still encounter many difficulties in choosing different schemes. Government decisions affect many people, but only a few people make decisions. No matter what the situation of these few decision makers is, when they make distribution decisions, they are always easily painted with subjective preferences, such as favoring high input and high speed, while relatively ignoring economic benefits, economic stability and the internal structure of the information industry. Preference for administrative means, relative neglect of economic means and legal means; Preference for direct control, relative neglect of indirect control. Due to the lack of information for decision-making in the process of planning adjustment, the decision-making process is too complicated and the decision-making mechanism is not perfect, which may cause the government to act slowly or make mistakes, thus affecting the optimization degree of information resource allocation.
(C) the dual allocation of information resources
Nowadays, few people believe that a purely planned economy or a completely laissez-faire free market can undertake the myth of allocating resources alone. The practice of economic development in various countries proves that in most cases, the market can allocate resources at a lower cost, but at the same time, if the market fails, it also needs moderate government intervention, that is, the information resources are allocated by combining the market with the plan.
Market allocation and planned allocation are dialectical relations, and their combination is complementary in function and coordinated in effect. Therefore, the mixed allocation of information resources by market and plan can not only avoid the inefficiency of market allocation in the real economic environment with incomplete information, especially under the conditions of unfavorable selection and immoral behavior, but also avoid the increasingly serious information poverty in the planned allocation of resources under the conditions of incomplete information. In fact, if we fully consider all kinds of information problems in the allocation of information resources, we can easily come to the conclusion that the efficiency of resource allocation is higher than that of simple market allocation or simple planned allocation, whether it is market-oriented or planned. As for market allocation or planned allocation, it depends on the specific economic environment and the specific requirements of information resource allocation.