ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES ON OPEN SOURCE

Abstract

There has been a recent surge of interest in open source software development, which involves developers at many different locations and organizations sharing code to develop and refine programs. To an economist, the behavior of individual programmers and commercial companies engaged in open source projects is initially startling. This paper makes a preliminary exploration of the economics of open source software. We highlight the extent to which labor economics, especially the literature on career concerns’, can explain many of these projects’ features. Aspects of the future of open source development process, however, remain somewhat difficult to predict with off-the-shelf’ economic models.

Citation

Lerner, J. and Tirole, J. (2004), "ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES ON OPEN SOURCE", Libecap, G.D. (Ed.) Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship (Advances in the Study of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth, Vol. 15), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 33-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1048-4736(04)01502-4