Discussions of the economic impact of open source software often generate                  more heat than light. Advocates passionately assert the benefits of open source                  while critics decry its effects. Missing from the debate is rigorous economic                  analysis and systematic economic evidence of the impact of open source on consumers,                  firms, and economic development in general. This book fills that gap. In The                  Comingled Code, Josh Lerner and Mark Schankerman, drawing on a new, large-scale                  database, show that open source and proprietary software interact in sometimes                  unexpected ways, and discuss the policy implications of these findings. The new data                  (from a range of countries in varying stages of development) documents the mixing of                  open source and proprietary software: firms sell proprietary software while                  contributing to open source, and users extensively mix and match the two. Lerner and                  Schankerman examine the ways in which software differs from other technologies in                  promoting economic development, what motivates individuals and firms to contribute                  to open source projects, how developers and users view the trade-offs between the                  two kinds of software, and how government policies can ensure that open source                  competes effectively with proprietary software and contributes to economic                  development.

The Comingled Code: Open Source and Economic Development PDF

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