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Open Source Software and Economic Growth: A Classical Division of Labor Perspective

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Author Info
Garzarelli, Giampaolo
Limam, Yasmina Reem
Thomassen, Bjørn

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Abstract

The article turns to classical economic insights on the division of labor and to institutional reasoning to identify some costs and benefits of Open Source Software (OSS) and proprietary software production. It suggests that, thanks to its licenses, OSS favors market expansion more than proprietary software does by tapping into spontaneous work input. The spontaneous tapping leads to a division of labor that exhibits what the article calls redundant economies. By generating a circle of knowledge growth, reuse, and sharing, redundant economies lead to increasing returns, which are crucial for economic growth.

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File URL: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/3849/
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 3849.

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Date of creation: 22 Jun 2007
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Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:3849

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Related research
Keywords: Division of Labor Extent of the Market Increasing Returns Institutions Knowledge Open Source Software Redundant Economies.

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
O34 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Intellectual Property Rights
D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
O33 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production
L17 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Open Source Products and Markets

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
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  20. Richard Langlois & Giampaolo Garzarelli, 2008. "Of Hackers and Hairdressers: Modularity and the Organizational Economics of Open-source Collaboration," Industry & Innovation, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 125-143. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  22. Dosi, Giovanni, 1982. "Technological paradigms and technological trajectories : A suggested interpretation of the determinants and directions of technical change," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 147-162, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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