A General Equilibrium Analysis of the Australian Information Economy

The more robust computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling has been applied to examine the macroeconomic implications of promoting the nascent Australian information economy.The Australian Information Economy could be trichotimized into marketed or primary information, secondary or non-marketed information and non-marketed information sectors using a special algorithm. The trichotimized database has been used in a CGE framework to examine the macro-policy implications of the emergent information economy. In particular, the nuturing of the primary information sector as a strategic sector under protection yields lack lustre results. Overall, it is the conclusion of this paper that CGE analysis provides richer policy insights to identify the information sectors that could be groomed to reap the benefits of trade. The CGE analytics are more informative that input-output comparative statics.