The Economics of Social Data: An Introduction

Dirk Bergemann and Alessandro Bonatti

No 2171R, Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University

Abstract: Large internet platforms collect data from individual users in almost every interaction on the internet. Whenever an individual browses a news website, searches for a medical term or for a travel recommendation, or simply checks the weather forecast on an app, that individual generates data. A central feature of the data collected from the individuals is its social aspect. Namely, the data captured from an individual user is not only informative about this speci"c individual, but also about users in some metric similar to the individual. Thus, the individual data is really social data. The social nature of the data generates an informational externality that we investigate in this note.

Keywords: Individual Data; Social Data; Informational Externality; Internet Platforms; Data Collection; Data Markup (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D80 D82 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 12 pages
Date: 2019-03, Revised 2019-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict, nep-net and nep-pay
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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