Can Happiness Economics Help Explain Voluntary Open Source Activities? Some Exploratory Cross-Country Empirics

Voluntary non-commercial Internet-based distributed computing ('social sharing' for short) is an open source activity that is emerging as a distinct mode of resource allocation and economic production. This paper presents an exploratory cross-country analysis of factors determining the output of the paradigmatic social sharing project, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI@home). The key hypothesis proposed is that SETI@home output is correlated with the average level of happiness in a country. Happiness is arguably a major motivational factor for participating in this type of project. The second major hypothesis explored is that trust, i.e. a form of social capital, is a less important motivational factor. I find some support for both hypotheses, but only for the group of developed and advanced countries. However, given the data limitations and the simple model tested, the results can only be regarded as suggestive, not conclusive. It is hoped they will stimulate further research into the link between open source and happiness economics