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Productivity Spillovers among Knowledge Workers in Agglomerations: Evidence from GitHub

Author

Listed:
  • Lena Abou El-Komboz

    (ifo Institute, LMU Munich)

  • Thomas Fackler

    (ifo Institute, LMU Munich, CESifo, Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard)

Abstract
Software engineering is a field with strong geographic concentration, with Silicon Valley as the epitome of a tech cluster. Yet, most studies on the productivity effects of agglomerations measure innovation with patent data, thus capturing only a fraction of the industry's activity. With data from the open source platform GitHub, our study contributes an alternative proxy for productivity, complementing the literature by covering a broad range of software engineering. With user activity data covering the years 2015 to 2021, we relate cluster size to an individual's productivity. Our findings suggest that physical proximity to a large number of other knowledge workers in the same field leads to spillovers, increasing productivity considerably. In further analyses, we confirm the causal relationship with an IV approach and study heterogeneities by cluster size, initial productivity and project characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Lena Abou El-Komboz & Thomas Fackler, 2023. "Productivity Spillovers among Knowledge Workers in Agglomerations: Evidence from GitHub," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 399, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
  • Handle: RePEc:rco:dpaper:399
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    agglomeration effects; knowledge spillovers; open source; online collaboration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O36 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Open Innovation
    • R32 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis

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