Nonrivalry and the Economics of Data

Charles Jones and Christopher Tonetti

American Economic Review, 2020, vol. 110, issue 9, 2819-58

Abstract: Data is nonrival: a person's location history, medical records, and driving data can be used by many firms simultaneously. Nonrivalry leads to increasing returns. As a result, there may be social gains to data being used broadly across firms, even in the presence of privacy considerations. Fearing creative destruction, firms may choose to hoard their data, leading to the inefficient use of nonrival data. Giving data property rights to consumers can generate allocations that are close to optimal. Consumers balance their concerns for privacy against the economic gains that come from selling data broadly.

JEL-codes: C80 D11 D21 D83 E22 K11 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (105)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Nonrivalry and the Economics of Data (2019)
Working Paper: Nonrivalry and the Economics of Data (2018)
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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20191330

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