Gratis Economy

A work in the relatively new field of economic sociology, this highly unconventional book deals with the logics of toll-free services and generalizes the notion of voluntary work toward encompassing everything that can be obtained free of charge in the world. The author claims that the publicity-driven gratis economy -- perhaps the greatest wealth-creator in history -- is integrating into the conventional non-profit sector. Kelen s exploration of the gratis economy covers the three basic institutional sectors: nonprofit/voluntary, business and government. The New Economy offers a wide range of services seemingly for free, but the costs are still supposed to be borne by some actors of the economy. The message of the book is very important: the motives of the gratis giving of goods or services can always be identified and could be explained either by motivated giving or by hidden marketing . These motives often lie outside of the scope of traditional economics and may have strong political, sociological and/or psychological connotations. The Gratis Economy will be of interest to professors and students of applied economics and business schools, sociologists, to the e-business community, marketing practitioners, webspinners, infonauts, netizens, software developers and decision-makers of electronic media.