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Centrality and content creation in networks - The case of economic topics on German wikipedia

Author

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  • Kummer, Michael E.
  • Saam, Marianne
  • Halatchliyski, Iassen
  • Giorgidze, George

Abstract

We analyze the role of local and global network positions for content contributions to articles belonging to the category “Economy” on the German Wikipedia. Observing a sample of 7635 articles over a period of 153 weeks we measure their centrality both within this category and in the network of over one million Wikipedia articles. Our analysis reveals that an additional link from the observed category is associated with around 140 bytes of additional content and with an increase in the number of authors by 0.5. The relation of links from outside the category to content creation is much weaker. Beyond the econometric analysis, our study sheds light on how the discipline of economics is represented on German Wikipedia. We find non-neoclassical themes to be highly prevalent among the top articles.

Suggested Citation

  • Kummer, Michael E. & Saam, Marianne & Halatchliyski, Iassen & Giorgidze, George, 2016. "Centrality and content creation in networks - The case of economic topics on German wikipedia," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 36-52.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:36:y:2016:i:c:p:36-52
    DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2016.06.002
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    1. Kai Zhu & Dylan Walker & Lev Muchnik, 2020. "Content Growth and Attention Contagion in Information Networks: Addressing Information Poverty on Wikipedia," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 491-509, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    User-generated content; Network analysis; Hyperlinks; Spillovers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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