the decision to contribute. Non-pecuniary incentives, such as “badges” and social status on a platform,
are often used to encourage and steer contributions. I then discuss other issues including business
models, network effects, and privacy. Throughout the chapter, I discuss open questions in this area.
Keywords
User-generated content, Social media, Economics of information, Design economics
JEL Codes
D8, L1, L86
12.1. INTRODUCTION
Imagine that a hypothetical employee at an encyclopedia company in the year 1980
pitches the following idea to her boss:
I think we can cut most of our expenses and produce more content than ever before. All we have to
do is allow anyone to visit our office and write encyclopedia entries on the topics they think know
something ...