A BEJEAP Advances article.

Abstract

Much work has been done in recent times to answer the question of why people contribute, and continue to contribute to open-source and free software, despite the lack of immediate financial gain in most cases. Lerner and Tirole (2002) hypothesize that open-source contributions act as a form of job-market signaling – they permit prospective employers to judge a person's ability directly. This paper tests the nature of this signaling using a complementarity framework. Do developers use open source software as a way to enhance the signal from a college education, or to substitute for it, in a form of learning by doing? I find evidence that they are complements, while conclusively rejecting the idea that they are substitutes.

Submitted: August 22, 2007 · Accepted: April 16, 2008 · Published: June 11, 2008

Recommended Citation

Hakim Orman, Wafa (2008) "Giving It Away for Free? The Nature of Job-Market Signaling by Open-Source Software Developers," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy: Vol. 8 : Iss. 1 (Advances), Article 12.
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol8/iss1/art12

Related Files

hakim_orman.zip (892 kB)
Raw and modified data and do-file in Stata format