6.2. 1. 1 information commodity formation
Commodities are labor products that can be exchanged and meet people's needs. From the definition of commodity, we can see that commodity has two essential elements: "labor product" and "used for exchange".
According to the definition of commodity, the formation of information commodity must meet the following conditions:
(1) should be useful and can meet people's needs in a certain aspect.
(2) valuable.
(3) can be used for exchange.
For example, housing intermediary information has the use value of inquiry, sale and house selection by buyers and sellers; When buying and selling a house, its housing agent will get paid for the information of the housing agent; Housing intermediary information is used in housing trading activities, and only when it is used for exchange can it gain value.
6.2. 1.2 Nature of information commodity
As a commodity, information commodity not only has the characteristics of general commodities (such as value and use value, scarcity, based on private property rights, etc.). ), but also has the characteristics different from ordinary goods:
(1) Information goods are experience goods. The so-called experience commodity means that you can't know its value before using it, and you can know its value after using it. As an experience commodity, information commodity cannot be decided by the manufacturer, because people don't know its value before using it, but if they use it, they don't need to buy it again. Therefore, the pricing of information commodities is a problem worthy of in-depth study, which is more difficult than the pricing of other commodities.
(2) High fixed cost and low replication cost. In the research and development stage of information commodities, a lot of fixed costs need to be invested, including human capital, technical knowledge accumulation, production equipment investment, pilot investment and market risk. Copying information goods is very simple. Once the first batch of information goods are produced, the cost of reproduction is almost zero.
(3) Non-exclusive and non-competitive. Non-exclusiveness means that one individual cannot prevent another from consuming the commodity, while non-competitiveness means that one individual's consumption will not reduce the consumption of other individuals. Non-exclusiveness and non-competitiveness are the characteristics of public goods. The reproduction cost of information goods is very low, and it is non-competitive and non-exclusive. In order to protect intellectual property rights, we generally rely on the intellectual property system to realize the exclusiveness of information goods, such as patents and copyrights.
(4) timeliness. The timeliness of information commodities includes the timeliness of content and delivery process. The timeliness of content means that the content of information goods is only valid for a specific user in a specific time. The timeliness of information commodities determines the intensity of information commodities being used. The stronger the timeliness, the greater the intensity of being used, and vice versa.
6.2.2 Value and use value of information commodities
6.2.2. 1 use value of information commodities
The use value of information commodity means that information commodity can meet people's needs, that is, the size of information commodity use. The use value of information commodities can be divided into subjective use value and objective use value. Subjective use value refers to the possible utility of information goods after use, which is obtained by both the supply and demand sides of information goods according to experience or calculation. Objective use value is the real utility of information goods after use. Can be divided into economic value and social value.
The Value of Information Commodities in 6.2.2.2
According to the viewpoint of Marxist political economy, value is undifferentiated human labor condensed in commodities, and it is the social attribute of commodities, which embodies the connection between commodity producers and users. Therefore, the value of information goods is concentrated in the socially necessary labor time spent on producing information goods. Under the existing normal social production conditions, it measures the labor time or labor consumption needed to create a certain use value by the average social labor proficiency and labor intensity.
According to the definition of information commodity value, to measure the value of an information commodity, it is necessary to measure the labor time spent by the information commodity under the average social labor proficiency and labor intensity. The standard for calculating the value of general commodities is simple labor, but it is not appropriate to measure the socially necessary labor time of information commodities with simple labor, because the production of information commodities is not simple labor and has high complexity. The usual practice is to transform complex labor into simple labor through a certain proportional coefficient. For example, based on some simple labor, the labor consumption standard of information production is determined as a coefficient (such as intensity coefficient, complexity coefficient and elasticity coefficient), and then based on some experience of receiving education and training, according to various academic qualifications and qualifications, various labor parameters are determined for information producers respectively. The higher the education and qualifications, the greater the corresponding coefficient, and the greater the value created by its advanced labor.
The monetary form and value measurement of information commodity is a problem worthy of in-depth study, mainly because its value is uncertain. For example, when calculating the socially necessary labor time, it is necessary to convert the complex labor of producing information goods into simple labor time, but there are many problems, such as what is complex labor, what is the distinguishing standard between complex labor and simple labor, and how to determine the coefficient of transforming complex labor into simple labor.
6.2.3 Cost and Composition of Information Commodities
Information goods have the characteristics of high fixed cost and low marginal cost, so information goods and information services can be reproduced at extremely low marginal cost. In the process of reproduction, the constant cost of information goods and information services is much more important than the variable cost which accounts for a large proportion of the total cost of goods.
Assuming that the fixed cost is F and the variable cost per unit product is C (constant), the marginal cost is also a constant H, the output is Q, and the total cost function of the enterprise is
C=F+cq
The average cost (AC) function can be obtained as follows: AC = c+f/q.
As can be seen from the average cost function, when the output Q of an enterprise increases, the average cost AC decreases, that is, the larger the production scale, the less the fixed cost shared by the unit product. It can be seen that under the condition of constant variable cost, the average cost is bound to be closer to the marginal cost MC or the unit variable cost C.
For information goods, both fixed cost and variable cost are important factors affecting economies of scale. For information commodities such as cable TV, optical fiber communication and chips, the fixed cost is quite large, while the cost of connecting an additional user (that is, variable cost) is much lower. In the production of software information goods, there is almost no variable cost, and the average cost will decrease with the increase of output, but the rate of decline will be slower and slower. It can be seen that in industries with very small variable costs, although the fixed costs may not be too large, economies of scale are also obvious, which is very obvious in the software industry. Therefore, for information goods, the cost will decrease with the increase of output, and the price will also decrease.
6.2.4 Price mechanism of information commodities
The price of information commodity is the monetary expression of the value of information commodity and the basis of its price formation. The value of information commodity determines the formation and composition of information commodity price, and the value characteristics of information commodity will inevitably lead to the price characteristics of information commodity.
Price is the product of commodity economy, and the price of a product is the monetary expression of its value. Price is based on the social value of products (that is, socially necessary labor consumption), not on the labor consumption of enterprises. Information commodity price refers to the monetary expression of information commodity value in the information market. The price of information goods will be affected by many factors such as supply and demand. Information commodity price based on the value of information commodity has the following functions: ① as the basis of information commodity exchange; ② Measure the scarcity of information commodities; ③ As an information instruction in information commodity management.
Price mechanism refers to the interaction and influence between price changes and market supply and demand changes. When the price of a commodity falls, information users will increase consumption and purchase, while producers will reduce production and supply; On the contrary, when the price of a commodity rises, information users will economize on use and reduce purchases, and producers will expand production and increase supply. Therefore, in a market economy, production activities and purchase and sale activities are generally regulated by prices rather than administrative means. At the same time, the change of supply and demand will also affect or restrict the market commodity prices. When the total output of a commodity increases, its price will decrease; On the contrary, it will increase its price.
The price of information commodity is more complicated than the price of material commodity when reflecting its value. As far as information commodity is concerned, it is a scientific and technological achievement transformed from new ideas, new principles, new designs, new methods and new processes through creative labor of human thinking. Because it can meet many needs and uses without reproduction in its life cycle, its price mainly depends on the utility value or interest value of information products.
As for secondary information commodities, because they are produced on the basis of accumulated primary information commodities, they are sorting, synthesizing and refining primary information. According to certain standards and requirements, it is produced and processed by designated institutions at one time, and other institutions can meet various needs without repeated production, thus realizing multi-party enjoyment. The production process of secondary information goods is not repeated according to certain standards like material goods, but the difficulty of producing the same secondary information goods is similar, the working procedures and methods are basically stereotyped, the duration is balanced, the consumption is basically the same, and the input-output relationship is determined. Therefore, the price standard of secondary information goods can be calculated by category and can be formulated by considering labor time comprehensively.
The price of information goods will be influenced by information users. Information users' own material conditions, technical conditions and intellectual conditions, especially their own creative labor, often play a decisive role in the realization of the utility of information goods in the consumption process. The actual utility of the same information commodity to different users is different. The utility obtained by information users when they buy or consume information goods becomes the basis and basis for determining the price of information goods.
The price of information goods will also be affected by other factors, such as the production cost, production difficulty, supply and demand, users' ability to pay, market monopoly, environment and characteristics of information market, and so on. These factors sometimes play a decisive role, but because they do not play a regular role, they are not internal or essential, so they cannot be the basis and basis for determining the price of information commodities.