Implications of Open Government Data for the Digital Economy

Authors

Bastian Haberer, University of PassauFollow

Abstract

In the European Union, there has recently been increasing political effort to increase the scope and accessibility of Open Government Data (OGD). At the same time, companies use OGD more and more for their commercial activities. Based on a game-theoretic model consisting of two competing platforms which offer their consumers a service in exchange for gathering consumer data, we investigate the effects of OGD publication on digital markets. We find that whether platforms’ service quality and consumer surplus increase with OGD publication depends on the utilization of this data. When used to complement consumer data in customer analytics or for service improvement, OGD publication increases service quality in the market and consumer surplus. In contrast, when OGD substitutes consumer data in customer analytics or when companies use the data to innovate and differentiate services, service quality and consumer surplus decrease. In addition, we find that platforms generally benefit from OGD usage. They benefit more from substitutive (complementary) OGD, if service quality provision is expensive (inexpensive). Our analysis bears important implications for policy makers regarding which type of data to publish as OGD and which not.

Recommended Citation

Haberer, Bastian, "Implications of Open Government Data for the Digital Economy" (2020). In Proceedings of the 28th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), An Online AIS Conference, June 15-17, 2020.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2020_rp/171