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

Author

Listed:
  • Brynjolfsson, Erik
  • Collis, Avinash

    (UT Austin)

  • Diewert, W. Erwin
  • Eggers, Felix
  • Fox, Kevin J.

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Brynjolfsson, Erik & Collis, Avinash & Diewert, W. Erwin & Eggers, Felix & Fox, Kevin J., 2019. "GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods in the Digital Economy," OSF Preprints sptfu_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:sptfu_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/sptfu_v1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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