Some Simple Economics of Open Source

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of industrial economics 2002-06, Vol.50 (2), p.197-234
Main Authors: Lerner, Josh, Tirole, Jean
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business structures
Commercial publishing
Computer programming
Computer software
Corporations
Economic theory
Labor economics
Open source
Open source licensing
Open source software
Operating systems
Organization theory
Public domain
Publishing industry
Studies
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Description
Summary: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', and industrial organization theory can explain many of these projects' features. We conclude by listing interesting research questions related to open source software.
ISSN:0022-1821
1467-6451
DOI:10.1111/1467-6451.00174