Economic Value of Public Data and Its Macroeconomic Impact

Abstract

The movement of offering new services based on incorporating open data is becoming prevalent. In the past, a database was constructed and held within an individual organization without disclosure, inhibiting wide scale data usage. Third parties found it difficult to use data to provide a new service. However, by disclosing data in a format available for secondary usage, such data becomes “open data,” with the potential of broadening new horizons. Data access enables innovative development at individual and organizational levels. This article first shows prior studies regarding the macroeconomic impact of an open data policy, including the latest economic simulation of the macro economic impact of publicly owned data in Japan. Secondly, it explains three factors that will affect innovative use of open data related to business or government; Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technology. The author intends to provide some additional viewpoints showing economic possibilities of publicly owned data and government policies.