Time: 10:00 am - 11:30 am, Aug 24th, 2026
Speaker: Jeff Gortmaker (New York University)
Venue: Zhifuxuan Classroom, Langrun Garden, Peking University
Abstract:
Open source software (OSS) is a form of public knowledge widely provided and relied on by the private sector. To study the effects of growing government involvement in this critical public good, I build a new empirical model where high-tech firms choose software inputs and developer labor in competitive equilibrium. For estimation, I create a new dataset of OSS and in-house investment for the global web development industry, where software choices are directly observable. I simulate counterfactuals to assess the global impact of China tightening its recent internet restrictions on cross-border OSS collaboration or increasing its financial support for domestic OSS. I find that stricter restrictions do little to boost domestic OSS investment. Instead, lost spillovers raise web development costs in China by $2 per dollar of disincentive and $7 globally. Heightened subsidies prove more effective at increasing domestic investment and cut global costs by $11 per dollar of subsidy---tripling if the US responds in kind.
Speaker:
Jeff Gortmaker is an Assistant Professor of Economics at New York University's Stern School of Business. Professor Gortmaker's research focuses on industrial organization and econometrics, with particular interests in open source software, technology policy, and computational methods. Before joining NYU Stern, Professor Gortmaker was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University and a research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He received his B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Columbia University and his Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University.