Abstract
The process by which knowledge or information evolves and spreads through the economy involves changing its nature between tacit and codified forms. The process of codification includes three aspects: model building, language creation and the writing of messages. Recent technical changes in several technologies have impinged on these three activities and changed the costs and benefits from each of them, generally lowering the costs of codification. Technical changes have also facilitated the diffusion of codified knowledge, which has increased its value. Due to the temporal relations among the three aspects of codification, the ongoing process in which codification takes place may be pathdependent.
Keywords
DiffusionEconomicsPositive economicsNeoclassical economicsEconomic geographySociologyThermodynamics
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Publication Info
- Year
- 1997
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 595-622
- Citations
- 506
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Robin Cowan,
Dominique Foray
(1997).
The Economics of Codification and the Diffusion of Knowledge.
Industrial and Corporate Change
, 6
(3)
, 595-622.
https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/6.3.595
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1093/icc/6.3.595