This book defines and develops the concept of data capital. Using an interdisciplinary perspective, this book focuses on the key features of the data economy, systematically presenting the economic aspects of data science. The book (1) introduces an alternative interpretation on economists’ observation of which capital has changed radically since the twentieth century; (2) elaborates on the composition of data capital and it as a factor of production; (3) describes morphological changes in data capital that influence its accumulation and circulation; (4) explains the rise of data capital as an underappreciated cause of phenomena from data sovereign, economic inequality, to stagnating productivity; (5) discusses hopes and challenges for industrial circles, the government and academia when an intangible wealth brought by data (and information or knowledge as well); (6) proposes the development of criteria for measuring regulating data capital in the twenty-first century for regulatory purposes by looking at the prospects for data capital and possible impact on future society.
Providing the first a thorough introduction to the theory of data as capital, this book will be useful for those studying economics, data science, and business, as well as those in the financial industry who own, control, or wish to work with data resources.
Part I: Data and Currency.- Chapter 1: Data.- Chapter 2: Currency.- Part II: The Production of Absolute and of Relative Surplus-Value in Data Produces.- Chapter 3: The Data Product and its Produces.- Chapter 4:The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value in Data Produces.- Chapter 5: The Production of Relative Surplus-Value in Data Produces.- Part III: Data Capital.- Chapter 6: Data Capital Definition.- Chapter 7: The Transformation of Data in Capital.- Chapter 8: Dualism: The Real World vs. Cyberspace.- Part IV: The Morphological Changes for Data Capital.- Chapter 9: The Accumulation of Data Capital.- Chapter 10: Data Capital Surplus.- Chapter 11: The Reproduction of Data Capital.- Chapter 12: The Process of Circulation of Data Capital. Part V: Regulating Data Capital and Distribution of Data Wealth.- Part VI: The Distribution of Data Wealth. Part V: Regulating Data Capital and Distribution of Data Wealth.- Part VI: The Distribution of Data Wealth.
Chunlei Tang, Ph.D., is a research fellow at Harvard University. She proposed the concept of “the Data Industry” (in 2013), who is the author of The Data Industry: The Business and Economics of Information and Big Data (published June 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). Her passion lies at the interface of Data Science along with its applications and Economics.
This book defines and develops the concept of data capital. Using an interdisciplinary perspective, this book focuses on the key features of the data economy, systematically presenting the economic aspects of data science. The book (1) introduces an alternative interpretation on economists’ observation of which capital has changed radically since the twentieth century; (2) elaborates on the composition of data capital and it as a factor of production; (3) describes morphological changes in data capital that influence its accumulation and circulation; (4) explains the rise of data capital as an underappreciated cause of phenomena from data sovereign, economic inequality, to stagnating productivity; (5) discusses hopes and challenges for industrial circles, the government and academia when an intangible wealth brought by data (and information or knowledge as well); (6) proposes the development of criteria for measuring regulating data capital in the twenty-first century for regulatory purposes by looking at the prospects for data capital and possible impact on future society.
Providing the first a thorough introduction to the theory of data as capital, this book will be useful for those studying economics, data science, and business, as well as those in the financial industry who own, control, or wish to work with data resources.