The invisible tax of free knowledge: Evidence from the Wikimedia projects | #Wikimania2023
Channel: Wikimedia Foundation
Date: 2023-11-23

The invisible tax of free knowledge is a concept that describes the degree of excludability of free knowledge as a result of socio-economic factors, such as digital divide, economic development and censorship. This research presents a methodology for calculating the invisible tax on a country level based on data from the Wikimedia projects.

The content provided through the Wikimedia projects is a classical example free knowledge. In turn, as free knowledge is said to be a public good, the content of the Wikimedia projects can also be considered as such. Its consumption by any one cannot affect the consumption by others, which makes it non-rivalrous, and its freely accessible by any one, which makes it non-excludable. However, the accuracy of the non-excludability is disputed as there are people with unequal access to the Wikimedia projects around the world. In some countries of the developing world, people still do not have access to digital technologies and lack digital skills (digital divide), which is mostly a result of the lack of economic development and the high poverty rates. In other countries, the problem is of different nature because the access to the content is restricted by the authorities (censorship). 

The certain degree of excludability of public goods has been well-known to economists for a long time and, hence, the notion of 'impure public good' occurred. This research aims to measure the degree of excludability of the content on the Wikimedia projects through the differences in page views on the Wikimedia projects across countries. In addition, it identifies the Internet penetration, the Internet surveillance and the digital skills as primary determinants of the differences. The estimated excludability is referred to as 'invisible tax' as it reduces the aggregate marginal benefit on the demand side and the aggregate supply of content, thus producing a deadweight loss.

The results from the research may be useful in mapping countries on the basis of the level of excludability of the Wikimedia projects so that programmes and initiatives to solve this problem are planned and targeted more efficiently.

Presenter:  Kiril Simeonovski

Presentation slide:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_invisible_tax_of_free_knowledge.pdf