Economics on the Web textbooks

[MGUK]

Hi,

I've just started studying towards a PhD in Web Science (interdisciplinary study of the web) and over the next 4 years, I would like to do some serious in depth research into distributed currencies.

Initially, I'm looking into the link between crime and distributed currencies (sore point for some I know, but I try to be as clear as possible in the statement that not every Bitcoin transaction is by a criminal or for illicit purposes regardless of what the media say.) Eventually, I would like to go on to investigate the effects of distributed currencies on the real world and existing currencies and businesses, and hopefully contribute some good peer-reviewed literature that can help the push towards a successful and widely accepted distributed currency for the masses.

My background is in Computing Science so as you can imagine, I have a lot to learn before I can comment on humans or on currencies.

At the moment, I'm trying to bring myself up to speed on economics. I've had a fairly decent look and I may be looking in the wrong places, but I'm gob-smacked at the lack of economics textbooks that talk about the web and the internet. I mean, surely the implications of the web on economics justifies at least one textbook?

Can anyone advise any economics textbooks that discuss the effects of web on economics and vice versa (e.g. if it's the same as "real-world" economics, and if not, how?) Even latest editions of books like "economics for today" don't even have a chapter on economics on the web.

Thanks in advanced:)

[49er]

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but take a look at Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World.

Here are a couple of reviews of the book by people who study economics:

Networks are everywhere, in our social lives, in our economic relations, and in nature; they are now finally arriving to our classrooms.

The first college-level text on network science, it should be a big hit for students in economics and business.

David Easley and Jon Kleinberg have given us a totally new kind of basic economics text, where students learn how to analyze social networks and crowds as well as games and markets. This book covers a remarkable range of topics and offers a broad new vision of what economics can be about.