IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eoe/escoed/escoe-dp-2023-16.html

Measuring the Value of Free Digital Goods

Author

Listed:
  • Poquiz, John Lourenze

Abstract

The goal of this research is to estimate and examine the value derived by households from the utilization of free digital goods. For this exercise, we estimate value from the final consumption of three forms of free digital goods: videoconferencing, personal email, and online news. As our measurement strategy, we employ the prices of “premium” or paid internet goods as a proxy for the value from their free counterparts. We also use hedonic regression in order to extract the value of the ‘free component’ of these goods and untangle them from the value of the premium exclusive components. Our estimates show that in 2020, the aggregate gross value derived by households from the consumption of the three digital services was between £7.0 billion and £25.4 billion, which is 1.1 to 2 percent of household final consumption expenditures. We also observe that the value derived by households from consuming these goods is growing much faster than HFCE. Our estimates show that in 2020, the initial year of the COVID pandemic, real household final consumption decline would have been 0.07 to 0.13 percentage points slower had the value of the three digital goods been incorporated in the estimates.

Suggested Citation

  • Poquiz, John Lourenze, 2023. "Measuring the Value of Free Digital Goods," Discussion Papers escoe-dp-2023-16, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence.
    • Handle: RePEc:eoe:escoed:escoe-dp-2023-16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.repository-escoe.com/id/eprint/27/1/ESCoE%20DP%202023-16%20V2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charles Hulten & Leonard Nakamura, 2017. "Accounting for Growth in the Age of the Internet: The Importance of Output-Saving Technical Change," NBER Working Papers 23315, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. repec:osf:osfxxx:akqhn_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Leonard Nakamura & Jon Samuels & Rachel Soloveichik, 2017. "Measuring the Free Digital Economy within the GDP and Productivity Accounts," BEA Working Papers 0146, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    4. Leonard I. Nakamura & Rachel Soloveichik, 2015. "Valuing “free” media across countries in GDP," Working Papers 15-25, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    5. Jamison, Mark A. & Wang, Peter, 2021. "Valuation of digital goods during the coronavirus outbreak in the United States," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(5).
    6. Erik Brynjolfsson & Avinash Collis & Felix Eggers, 2019. "Using massive online choice experiments to measure changes in well-being," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(15), pages 7250-7255, April.
    7. Aizcorbe, Ana M., 2014. "A Practical Guide to Price Index and Hedonic Techniques," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198702429.
    8. Ariel Pakes, 2003. "A Reconsideration of Hedonic Price Indexes with an Application to PC's," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1578-1596, December.
    9. repec:osf:socarx:gnd4c_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    11. Hanemann, W Michael, 1991. "Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept: How Much Can They Differ?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(3), pages 635-647, June.
    12. Erik Brynjolfsson & Avinash Collis & W. Erwin Diewert & Felix Eggers & Kevin J. Fox, 2020. "Measuring the Impact of Free Goods on Real Household Consumption," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 25-30, May.
    13. Diane Coyle & David Nguyen, 2020. "Free goods and economic welfare," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2020-18, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    14. Shogren, Jason F. & Seung Y. Shin & Dermot J. Hayes & James B. Kliebenstein, 1994. "Resolving Differences in Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 255-270, March.
    15. Brynjolfsson, Erik & Collis, Avinash & Diewert, W. Erwin & Eggers, Felix & Fox, Kevin J., 2019. "GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods in the Digital Economy," OSF Preprints sptfu, Center for Open Science.
    16. Diane Coyle, 2015. "GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History (Revised and Expanded Edition)," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 2, number 10598, December.
    17. repec:osf:osfxxx:sptfu_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Richard Heys & Josh Martin & Walter Mkandawire, 2019. "GDP and Welfare: A spectrum of opportunity," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2019-16, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Lourenze Poquiz, 2024. "Measuring the value of free digital goods," Working Papers 044, The Productivity Institute.
    2. Poquiz, John Lourenze, 2023. "Measuring the Value of Digital Piracy," Discussion Papers escoe-dp-2023-05, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence.
    3. Diane Coyle & Leonard Nakamura, 2022. "Time Use, Productivity, and Household-centric Measurement of Welfare in the Digital Economy," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 42, pages 165-186, Spring.
    4. Veisten, Knut, 2007. "Contingent valuation controversies: Philosophic debates about economic theory," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 204-232, April.
    5. Diane Coyle & David Nguyen, 2020. "Free goods and economic welfare," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2020-18, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    6. Waldman, Kurt B. & Kerr, John M., 2015. "Is Food and Drug Administration policy governing artisan cheese consistent with consumers’ preferences?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 71-80.
    7. Diane Coyle & Leonard I. Nakamura, 2019. "Toward a Framework for Time Use, Welfare, and Household Centric Economic Measurement," Working Papers 19-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    8. Ian Goldin & Pantelis Koutroumpis & François Lafond & Julian Winkler, 2024. "Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 196-268, March.
    9. Charles Hulten & Leonard I. Nakamura, 2020. "Expanded GDP for Welfare Measurement in the 21st Century," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Accounting for Innovation in the Twenty-First Century, pages 19-59, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Westerberg, Vanja & Jacobsen, Jette Bredahl & Lifran, Robert, 2013. "The case for offshore wind farms, artificial reefs and sustainable tourism in the French mediterranean," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 172-183.
    11. Erica L. Groshen & Brian C. Moyer & Ana M. Aizcorbe & Ralph Bradley & David M. Friedman, 2017. "How Government Statistics Adjust for Potential Biases from Quality Change and New Goods in an Age of Digital Technologies: A View from the Trenches," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 187-210, Spring.
    12. Chuan-zhong Li & Jari Kuuluvainen & Eija Pouta & Mika Rekola & Olli Tahvonen, 2004. "Using Choice Experiments to Value the Natura 2000 Nature Conservation Programs in Finland," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 29(3), pages 361-374, November.
    13. Bart Los & Marcel P. Timmer, 2020. "Measuring Bilateral Exports of Value Added: A Unified Framework," NBER Chapters, in: Challenges of Globalization in the Measurement of National Accounts, pages 389-421, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Bajari, P. & Cen, Z. & Chernozhukov, V. & Manukonda, M. & Vijaykumar, S. & Wang, J. & Huerta, R. & Li, J. & Leng, L. & Monokroussos, G. & Wang, S., 2025. "Hedonic prices and quality adjusted price indices powered by AI," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    15. Onundur Pall Ragnarsson, 2025. "A Hedonic Housing Model for Macroprudential Policy," Economics wp99, Department of Economics, Central bank of Iceland.
    16. Nayga, Rodolfo M., Jr. & Aiew, Wipon & Woodward, Richard T., 2004. "Willingness to Pay for Irradiated Food: A Non Hypothetical Market Experiment," 84th Seminar, February 8-11, 2004, Zeist, The Netherlands 24995, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Florian Englmaier & Arno Schmöller, 2008. "Reserve Price Formation in Online Auctions," CESifo Working Paper Series 2374, CESifo.
    18. Dragicevic, Arnaud Z. & Ettinger, David, 2011. "Private Valuation of a Public Good in Three Auction Mechanisms," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 1-29, April.
    19. Emmanuel Flachaire & Guillaume Hollard & Jason Shogren, 2013. "On the origin of the WTA–WTP divergence in public good valuation," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 74(3), pages 431-437, March.
    20. Gökçe Esenduran & James A. Hill & In Joon Noh, 2020. "Understanding the Choice of Online Resale Channel for Used Electronics," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(5), pages 1188-1211, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C82 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Macroeconomic Data; Data Access
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eoe:escoed:escoe-dp-2023-16. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Communications Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/escoeuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.