Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/193963 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
ZEW Discussion Papers No. 19-007
Publisher: 
ZEW - Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung, Mannheim
Abstract: 
Do contributions to online content platforms induce a feedback loop of ever more user-generated content or will they discourage future contributions? To assess this, we use a randomized field experiment which added content to some pages in Wikipedia while leaving similar pages unchanged. We find that adding content has a negligible impact on the subsequent long-run growth of content. Our results have implications for information seeding and incentivizing contributions, implying that additional content does not generate sizable externalities, neither by inspiring nor by discouraging future contributions.
Subjects: 
knowledge accumulation
user-generated content
Wikipedia
JEL: 
C93
L17
L86
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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