Should We Treat Data as Labor? Moving beyond "Free"

Imanol Arrieta-Ibarra, Leonard Goff, Diego Jiménez-Hernández, Jaron Lanier and E. Glen Weyl

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2018, vol. 108, 38-42

Abstract: In the digital economy, user data is typically treated as capital created by corporations observing willing individuals. This neglects users' roles in creating data, reducing incentives for users, distributing the gains from the data economy unequally, and stoking fears of automation. Instead, treating data (at least partially) as labor could help resolve these issues and restore a functioning market for user contributions, but may run against the near-term interests of dominant data monopsonists who have benefited from data being treated as "free." Countervailing power, in the form of competition, a data labor movement, and/or thoughtful regulation could help restore balance.

JEL-codes: C80 D63 J42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20181003
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

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