Towards an economic theory of barriers to communication

Papers of the Regional Science Association - Tập 66 - Trang 131-141 - 1989
Rico Maggi1
1Socioeconomic Institute, Zurich University, Zurich, Switzerland

Tóm tắt

This paper presents a microeconomic model of contact behaviour. Cost and expected utility are derived as a function of the number of contacts with a distinct medium. Barriers to communication occur when the optimal number of contacts is equal to zero. The focus is on the cost differences between telecommunication and face to face contact and on the influence of partial information gain on the expected utility of contact. The optimal number of contacts can be derived by analogy to the partial cover insurance decisions. The outlook for empirical implementation is given.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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