GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods in the Digital Economy

Erik Brynjolfsson, Avinash Collis, Walter Diewert, Felix Eggers and Kevin Fox

No 25695, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The welfare contributions of the digital economy, characterized by the proliferation of new and free goods, are not well-measured in our current national accounts. We derive explicit terms for the welfare contributions of these goods and introduce a new metric, GDP-B which quantifies their benefits, rather than costs. We apply this framework to several empirical examples including Facebook and smartphone cameras and estimate their valuations through incentive compatible choice experiments. For example, including the welfare gains from Facebook would have added between 0.05 and 0.11 percentage points to GDP-B growth per year in the US.

JEL-codes: D6 E2 O1 O4 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict, nep-mac and nep-pay
Note: DAE EFG PR
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Related works:
Working Paper: GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods in the Digital Economy (2019)
Working Paper: GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods in the Digital Economy (2019)
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