22、四大壟斷形式IV：合並
D. Mergers
Efforts to organize an industry in order to achieve practical monopoly control take different forms. Any combination of firms that reduces competition may be of a vertical, horizontal, or conglomerate character. A vertical combination involves merging firms at different stages of the production process into a single unit. Some of the oil companies, for example, own oil fields, refineries, transportation systems, and retail outlets. A horizontal combination involves bringing together firms in the same industry and at the same level in the production chain. Recently, conglomerate-type mergers have become prominent, with spectacular success in the 1960sbut diminishing until 1984and 1985,when the U.S. saw the greatest increase in corporate acquisitions in its history. A conglomerate merger combines firms from several unrelated industries into a single organization. All mergers and combinations have the potential for eliminating competition and creating monopoly. Mere potential, however, is not illegal in the U.S. under existing laws.
23、美國政府對壟斷的立法
The Sherman Antitrust Act was the key legislation in the U.S. effort to maintain by legal means a competitive economic environment. This act, which outlawed any “combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade”, has been supplemented by additional legislation, aimed at specific practices that lessen competition. In 1914、,the U.S. Congress passed the Clayton Antitrust Act and also established the Federal Trade Commission. The Clayton Antitrust Act made illegal such practices as price discrimination and tying contracts, which forced a buyer or seller to deal exclusively with a particular firm. More recently, the Celler-Kefauver Act （1950）attempts to prevent mergers through the acquisition of the assets of competing firms if the effect is to substantially lessen competition.
Results of the U.S. effort to contain monopolies and maintain competition by legal means have been mixed. They have depended on the attitude of federal courts toward the meaning of monopoly power and on the vigor with which administrations in power are willing to enforce antitrust laws. Both have varied widely over time. In general, U.S. efforts have been more successful in preventing the emergence of outright monopolies in many parts of the economy than in creating highly competitive markets in most industries.
24、信息經濟
An information economy is where the productivity and competitiveness of units or agents in the economy （be they firms, regions or nations） depend mainly on their capacity to generate, process, and apply efficiently knowledge-based information. It is also described as an economy where information is both the currency and the product.
While we have always relied on information exchange to do our jobs and run our lives, the information economy is different in that it can collect more relevant information at the appropriate time. Consequently, production in the information economy can be fine tuned in ways heretofore undreamed of. What makes information plentiful in this economy is the pervasive use of information and communications technology.
25、信息經濟的三大特點I：全球性
The information economy is global. A historically new reality, the global economy has the capacity to work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale. Corporations and firms now have a worldwide base for skilled labor to tap. Capital flows freely between countries, and countries can utilize this capital in real time.
However, a true global economy has yet to be achieved. The mobility of labor is undermined by people’s xenophobia and stricter immigration laws. Multinational corporations still maintain their assets and strategic command centers in their home nations, and capital is still limited by banking and finance laws.
Even if globalization has not yet been fully realized, it will only be a matter of time before this happens. Globalization will be affected by government regulations and policies, which will affect international boundaries and the structure of the global.
26、信息經濟的三大特點II：高產出
A second characteristic of the information economy is that it is highly productive. William Nordhaus of the US National Bureau of Economic Research states that: “Productivity growth in the new economy sectors has made a significant contribution to economy-wide productivity growth. In the business sector （between 1999and 2001）, labor-productivity growth excluding the new economy sectors was 2.24percent per year as compared to 3.19percent per year including the new economy. Of the 1.82percentage point increase in labor-productivity growth in the last three years relative to the earlier period, 0.65percentage point was due to the new economy sectors. The contribution of the new economy was slightly larger for well-measured output because that sector is smaller than the business economy.”
27、信息經濟的三大特點III：盈利方式轉變
A third characteristic of the information economy is the change in the manner of obtaining profits. Robert Reich observes that profits in the old economy came from economies of scale—long runs of more or less identical products. Thus, we had factories, assembly lines, and industries. Now profits come from speed of innovation and the ability to attract and keep customers. Where before the winners were big corporations, now the winners are small, highly flexible groups that devise great ideas, develop trustworthy branding for themselves and their products, and market these effectively. The winning competitors are those who are first at providing lower prices and higher value through intermediaries of trustworthy brands. But the winning is temporary, and the race is never over. Those in the lead cannot stop innovating lest they fall behind the competition.
28、影響國際貿易的因素
There are, however, many practical influences that distort the economic reality of international trade. For instance, such trade may be thwarted by fear of exploitation by economically or politically more powerful nations, by the desire to protect special groups of workers who would lose out to foreign economic competition, and by the unwillingness to become dependent on foreign countries for certain products that could become unavailable in the case of future conflicts.
29、信息通訊投資與利潤
Some critics argue that there is no relationship between profitability and investment in ICT. Castells looks into the history of productivity growth in advanced market economies and observes a downward trend of productivity growth starting roughly around the time that the information technology revolution was taking shape in the early 1970s. According to him, this decline was particularly marked in all countries for serviced activities, where new information-processing devices could be thought to have increased productivity. However, manufacturing productivity presents a different picture. Manufacturing productivity in the US and Japan increased dramatically in 1988-1989by an annual average of 3%and 4.1%respectively, and productivity increased at a faster pace than during the 1990s. Castells concludes that economic statistics do not adequately capture the movements of the new information economy, precisely because of the broad scope of transformation under the impact of information technology and related organizational change. There may be a diffusion from information technology, manufacturing, telecommunications, and financial services into manufacturing services at large, and then into business services.
30、知識和網絡經濟
All these terms are used interchangeably, although the various concepts tend to emphasize different aspects of the phenomenon—like “knowledge” instead of “information” or “network” as opposed to “new”. The information revolution is a knowledge revolution. The key is not electronics but cognitive science. The software used for computers merely reorganizes traditional work, which had been based on experience. This is done through the application of knowledge, in particular systematic, logical analysis. Setting up an IT structure is not enough. To maintain leadership in the new economy, the social position of knowledge professionals and the social acceptance of their values should be guaranteed.
The knowledge economy is also a networked economy. The concept stresses the important role of links among individuals, groups and corporations in the new economy. It has been argued that networks have always been an ideal organizing tool due to their inherent flexibility and adaptability. However, traditional networks were not designed to coordinate functions beyond a certain size and complexity. This early limitation has been overcome with the introduction of ICTs, particularly the Internet, where the flexibility and adaptability of networks are brought to the fore, and their evolutionary nature is asserted.
31、電子商務及其五大形式
The ICT revolution has transformed not only how （and where） goods are produced but also how commodities are exchanged. E-commerce is buying and selling over the Internet or any transaction concluded through an information network involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods or services. More precisely, it includes all business transactions that use electronic communications and digital information processing technology to create, transform and redefine relationships for value creation between organizations, and between organizations and individuals.
The different types of e-commerce are: business-to-business （B2B）; business-to-consumer （B2C）; business-to-government （B2G）; consumer-to-consumer （C2C）; and mobile commerce （m-commerce）.