The Unintended Consequences of Censoring Digital Technology - Evidence from Italy's ChatGPT Ban

David Kreitmeir and Paul Raschky

No v3cgs, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: We analyse the effects of the ban of ChatGPT, a generative pre-trained transformer chatbot, on individual productivity. We first compile data on the hourly coding output of over 8,000 professional GitHub users in Italy and other European countries to analyse the impact of the ban on individual productivity. Combining the high-frequency data with the sudden announcement of the ban in a difference-in-differences framework, we find that the output of Italian developers decreased by around 50\% in the first two business days after the ban and recovered after that. Applying a synthetic control approach to daily Google search and Tor usage data shows that the ban led to a significant increase in the use of censorship bypassing tools. Our findings show that users swiftly implement strategies to bypass Internet restrictions but this adaptation activity creates short-term disruptions and hampers productivity.

Date: 2023-04-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-eff, nep-pay and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/643eb2177078db3c20ba2511/

Related works:
Working Paper: The Unintended Consequences of Censoring Digital Technology - Evidence from Italy's ChatGPT Ban (2023)
Working Paper: The Unintended Consequences of Censoring Digital Technology -- Evidence from Italy's ChatGPT Ban (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:v3cgs

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/v3cgs

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SocArXiv from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().