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Cooperation in Peer-Production Economy: Experimental Evidence from Wikipedia

Author

Listed:
  • Yann Algan

    (Département d'économie (ECON))

  • Yochai Benkler

    (Harvard Law School)

  • Mayo Fuster Morell

    (Berkman Center for Internet & Society)

  • Jerome Hergueux

Abstract

The impressive success of peer production – a large-scale collaborative model of production primarily based on voluntary contributions – is difficult to explain through the assumptions of standard economic theory. The aim of this paper is to study the prosocial foundations of cooperation in this new peer production economy. We provide the first field test of existing economic theories of prosocial motives for contributing to real world public goods. We use an online experiment coupled with observational data to elicit social preferences within a diverse sample of 850 Wikipedia contributors, and seek to use to those measures to predict subjects’ field contributions to the Wikipedia project. We find that subjects’ field contributions to Wikipedia are strongly related to their level of reciprocity in a conditional Public Goods game and in a Trust game and to their revealed preference for social image within the Wikipedia community, but not to their level of altruism either in a standard or in a directed Dictator game. Our results have important theoretical and practical implications, as we show that reciprocity and social image are both strong motives for sustaining cooperation in peer production environments, while altruism is not.

Suggested Citation

  • Yann Algan & Yochai Benkler & Mayo Fuster Morell & Jerome Hergueux, 2013. "Cooperation in Peer-Production Economy: Experimental Evidence from Wikipedia," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/5ulf84sluc9, Sciences Po.
    • Handle: RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5ulf84sluc9vlb5mrjr32mfetg
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    2. Marit Hinnosaar & Toomas Hinnosaar & Michael E. Kummer & Olga Slivko, 2022. "Externalities in knowledge production: evidence from a randomized field experiment," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(2), pages 706-733, April.
    3. Charles Ayoubi & Boris Thurm, 2023. "Knowledge diffusion and morality: Why do we freely share valuable information with Strangers?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 75-99, January.
    4. Kummer, Michael & Slivko, Olga & Zhang, Michael, 2015. "Economic downturn and volunteering: Do economic crises affect content generation on Wikipedia?," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-078, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Rawadee Jarungrattanapong & Suparee Boonmanunt, 2020. "Collective action and other-regarding behavior: an assessment of games vs reality in Thailand," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 22(4), pages 485-507, October.
    6. Slivko, Olga, 2014. "Peer effects in collaborative content generation: The evidence from German Wikipedia," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-128, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Hinnosaar, Marit, 2019. "Gender inequality in new media: Evidence from Wikipedia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 262-276.
    8. Michael Kummer & Olga Slivko & Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang, 2020. "Unemployment and Digital Public Goods Contribution," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 801-819, September.
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    10. Henry, Emeric & Sonntag, Jan, 2019. "Measuring image concern," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 19-39.
    11. Lei Xu & Tingting Nian & Luís Cabral, 2020. "What Makes Geeks Tick? A Study of Stack Overflow Careers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(2), pages 587-604, February.
    12. Serge Blondel & Ngoc-Thao Noet, 2023. "Quels facteurs expliquent la faible coopération en horticulture ?," TEPP Research Report 2023-01, TEPP.
    13. Henry, Emeric & Sonntag, Jan, 2019. "Measuring image concern," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 19-39.
    14. Kummer, Michael E. & Saam, Marianne & Halatchliyski, Iassen & Giorgidze, George, 2016. "Centrality and content creation in networks - The case of economic topics on German wikipedia," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 36-52.
    15. Dang Nguyen, Godefroy & Dejean, Sylvain & Jullien, Nicolas, 2018. "Do open online projects create social norms?," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 45-70, February.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Field Experiment; Public Goods; Social Preferences; Peer Production; Internet;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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