Dwight R. Lee

In the following viewpoint, Dwight R. Lee maintains that the importance of the Internet in modern economics has been exaggerated. He argues that while the Internet is an important technological advance that has made it easier for people to communicate, the free-market economy has always been based on the spread of information. According to Lee, the prices of goods and services in market economies are determined by communication between suppliers and consumers. For example, when consumers are dissatisfied with a product they buy less of it, sending a clear message to the company that made it that the product must be improved. Lee contends that although the Internet is responsible for marginal improvements in the market economy, market prices play a more important role. Lee is the Ramsey Professor of Economics and Private...