Replication Data for: Countering Underproduction of Information Public Goods

Information public goods are susceptible to a risk called “underproduction”: a mis- alignment of the quality of the good and the demand for it. The practical con- sequences vary by the type of good. When the information public good is digital infrastructure, underproduced goods may be plagued by widescale security vulner- abilities, and when the information public good is detailed factual information, un- derproduced goods spread misinformation and ignorance. Yet contributors to in- formation public goods are often volunteers who choose their own tasks, and are not assigned to track consumer demand or to serve public needs. Although under- production has been shown to be a common feature of peer-produced information public goods, very little is known about how it can be counteracted. To understand whether contributor experience and limits on their personal identifiability might serve to counteract underproduction, we use a detailed longitudinal dataset from English Wikipedia. First, we show that more experienced editors tend to contribute to underproduced articles. Second, we show that this tendency to contribute in ways that counter underproduction is still present although generally weaker among those who contribute without an account. Third, we use a within-person analysis to show that contributors tend to shift toward underproduced articles over time. These find- ings illustrate the value of retaining peer production contributors, including those contributing without accounts, as a means to counter underproduction.信息公共品（information public goods）极易面临一种被称为‘供给不足（underproduction）’的风险：即其质量与实际需求之间存在错配。这类风险的实际后果因公共品的类型而异：当信息公共品为数字基础设施时，供给不足的产品可能存在大规模安全漏洞；而当信息公共品为详实的事实性信息时，供给不足的内容则会助长错误信息与无知的传播。然而，信息公共品的贡献者往往是自主选择任务的志愿者，并未被指派去追踪消费者需求或响应公共需求。尽管已有研究表明，供给不足是众包生产的信息公共品（peer-produced information public goods）的普遍特征，但目前学界对如何应对这一问题仍知之甚少。为探究贡献者经验与个人身份识别限制是否能够缓解供给不足问题，我们采用了来自英文维基百科的详实纵向数据集（longitudinal dataset）。其一，我们发现经验更丰富的编辑者更倾向于为供给不足的条目贡献内容；其二，尽管未注册账号的贡献者的这类缓解供给不足的贡献倾向普遍较弱，但该倾向依然存在；其三，我们通过个体内分析（within-person analysis）表明，随着时间推移，贡献者往往会转向为供给不足的条目进行创作。上述研究结果证实，保留众包生产的贡献者，包括未注册账号的贡献者，是应对供给不足问题的有效途径。