SEEK Project 2014: Side Effects of Economic Crises in Europe and Provision of Online Public Goods

SEEK Project 2014: Side Effects of Economic Crises in Europe and Provision of Online Public Goods

Client/Allowance

Baden-Württemberg

Period: 01.04.2014 – 31.03.2016

This project analyses the interaction between the recent economic crises in Europe and the incentives for private provision of online public goods. Focusing on Wikipedia, one of the most salient examples of an online public good, we address the impact of the European economic crises on the private incentives for public goods provision. This project provides a threefold contribution: First, we investigate the impact of unemployment caused by the crises on the dynamics of content generation in Wikipedia. Second, we address the innovative potential of Wikipedia by estimating the impact of crises on the dissemination of information about new technologies across Wikipedias in different languages. Third, using exogenous variation in the content of articles (e.g. sudden improvements of articles that are unrelated to the tourism industry), we estimate the impact of Wikipedia on local economies. The project will draw attention to the importance of the neglected side effects of unemployment on public goods provision and online time use.

Project members

Olga Slivkó

Olga Slivkó

Project Coordinator

To the profile
Michael Kummer

Michael Kummer

Research Associate

To the profile
Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang

Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang

Research Associate

To the profile
Client/Allowance
Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart, DE
Cooperation partner

Selected Events

Workshop

SEEK Workshop on Wikipedia Data Extraction and Analysis

From August 11 to 12, 2014, a two-day workshop on Wikipedia data extraction and analysis will take place at ZEW within the framework of the SEEK project "Side Effects of Economic Crises in Europe". It will…
Workshop

SEEK Workshop on Digital Economy

The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) is pleased to announce SEEK’s Digital Economy Workshop held June 2015. It is jointly organised with Collegio Carlo Alberto and will take place in Torino,…

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