Proponents of the digital economy have long argued that the best way to increase prosperity is to accelerate society’s transition to an information age. The more data we provide, share, access and process, the better for all of us. Our informed market decisions will lead to greater competition and consumer empowerment — or so the proposition goes.

But the adage that information is power should never be far from our minds. Nor the fact that information is not the same thing as knowledge. In the battle to bring on the information economy,

technologists and entrepreneurs eager to assert their market dominance may be overlooking more than 50 years of research into the economics of information. The result will be to the collective detriment of all of us. This becomes all the more concerning in light of what is now a well-established theory: more information does not necessarily breed more competition or social welfare.