TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lerner,Josh
AU  - Triole,Jean
TI  - The Simple Economics of Open Source
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7600
PY  - 2000
Y2  - March 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7600
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7600.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Josh Lerner
Harvard Business School
Rock Center 214
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-6065
Fax: 617/496-7357
E-Mail: jlerner@hbs.edu
AB  - There has been a recent surge of interest in open source software development, which involves developers at many different locations and organizations sharing code to develop and refine programs.  To an economist, the behavior of individual programmers and commercial companies engaged in open source projects is initially startling. This paper makes a preliminary exploration of the economics of open source software. We highlight the extent to which labor economics, especially the literature on  career concerns,' can explain many of these projects' features.  Aspects of the future of open source development process, however, remain somewhat difficult to predict with  off-the-shelf' economic models.
ER  -