The Comingled Code: Open Source and Economic Development
Josh Lerner and Mark Schankerman
Abstract
Discussions of the economic impact of open source software often generate more heat than light. Advocates passionately assert the benefits of open source while critics decry its effects. Missing from the debate is rigorous economic analysis and systematic economic evidence of the impact of open source on consumers, firms, and economic development in general. This book fills that gap, drawing on a new, large-scale database to show that open source and proprietary software interact in sometimes unexpected ways, and discussing the policy implications of these findings. The new data (from a range ... More
Discussions of the economic impact of open source software often generate more heat than light. Advocates passionately assert the benefits of open source while critics decry its effects. Missing from the debate is rigorous economic analysis and systematic economic evidence of the impact of open source on consumers, firms, and economic development in general. This book fills that gap, drawing on a new, large-scale database to show that open source and proprietary software interact in sometimes unexpected ways, and discussing the policy implications of these findings. The new data (from a range of countries in varying stages of development) documents the mixing of open source and proprietary software: firms sell proprietary software while contributing to open source, and users extensively mix and match the two. The book examines the ways in which software differs from other technologies in promoting economic development, what motivates individuals and firms to contribute to open source projects, how developers and users view the trade-offs between the two kinds of software, and how government policies can ensure that open source competes effectively with proprietary software and contributes to economic development.
Keywords:
open source,
economic analysis,
consumers,
firms,
economic development,
proprietary software,
developers,
trade-offs,
government policies,
users
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780262014632 |
| Published to MIT Press Scholarship Online: August 2013 |
DOI:10.7551/mitpress/9780262014632.001.0001 |
