Hinnosaar, Marit, Hinnosaar, Toomas, Kummer, Michael and Slivko, Olga (2020) Externalities in Knowledge Production: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment. Experimental Economics. ISSN 1386-4157 (In Press)

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Abstract

Are there positive or negative externalities in knowledge production? We analyze whether current contributions to knowledge production increase or decrease the future growth of knowledge. To assess this, we use a randomized field experiment that added content to some pages in Wikipedia while leaving similar pages unchanged. We find that adding content did not have a sizable impact on longterm content growth, neither in terms of quantity or quality. However, it increased editing activity in the first two years. Our results have implications for information seeding and incentivizing contributions. They imply that additional content may inspire future contributions in the short- and medium-term, but do not generate sizable externalities in the long-term.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2020 00:06
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2020 23:51
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/75667
DOI:

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