This paper considers a dynamic model of the evolution of open source software projects, focusing on the evolution of quality, contributing programmers, and users who contribute customer support to other users. Programmers who have used open source software are motivated by reciprocal altruism to...

The open-source software operating system Linux is a free-of-charge substitute to proprietary systems like Microsoft Windows. By using a cross-country data set, this paper finds evidence that increased piracy of proprietary software has a negative impact on adoption of desktop versions of Linux....

Open source software (OSS) is marked by free access to the software and its source code. OSS is developed by a "community" consisting of thousands of contributors from all over the world. Some research was undertaken in order to analyze how global the OSS community actually is, i.e. analyze the...

The paper analyzes the impact of institutional and cultural factors on a remarkable economic activity: the production of so-called open source software (OSS). OSS is marked by free access to the software and its source code. Copyright-based OSS licenses permit users to use, change, improve and...

So-called open source software (OSS) is marked by free access to the software and its source code. Copyright-based OSS licenses permit users to use, change, improve and redistribute the software, which is designed and developed in a public, collaborative manner. High quality OSS products like...

This article contributes to research on the geographic origin of open source software (OSS) developers by analyzing the geographic allocation of active OSS developers and OSS activities. Based on data from the SourceForge Research Data Archive, the authors exploit information about developers'...

Open standards and open source have become essential for ICT markets from an innovation, business, technical, and policy approach. Openness is one of the core values in standardisation settings. When it comes to the definition of ‘open', some views have pointed to a ‘clear-cut' division...

Copyright affects the distribution of creative content. Taking works off copyright promotes their availability, which benefits consumers. But it also allows generic entry to dissipate producer surplus. This paper examines the effect of a copyright on the availability and price of books when...

Voluntary non-commercial Internet-based distributed computing ('social sharing' for short) is an open source activity that is emerging as a distinct mode of resource allocation and economic production. This paper presents an exploratory cross-country analysis of factors determining the output of...

Evidence of gender differences in cooperation in social dilemmas is inconclusive. This paper experimentally elicits unconditional contributions, a contribution vector (cooperative preferences), and beliefs about the level of others' contributions in variants of the public goods game. We show...