Should We Treat Data as Labor? Moving Beyond 'Free' by Imanol Arrieta Ibarra, 
Leonard Goff, Diego Jiménez Hernández, Jaron Lanier, E. Glen Weyl :: SSRN
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3093683
(via Instapaper)

Should We Treat Data as Labor? Moving Beyond 'Free'

American Economic Association Papers & Proceedings, Vol. 1, No. 1, Forthcoming

5 Pages Posted: 29 Dec 2017

Imanol Arrieta Ibarra

Stanford University

Leonard Goff

Columbia University

Diego Jiménez Hernández

Stanford University

Jaron Lanier

Microsoft Corporation

E. Glen Weyl

Microsoft Research New York City; RadicalxChange Foundation; Princeton 
University - Julis Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance

Date Written: December 27, 2017

Abstract

In the digital economy, user data is typically treated as capital created by 
corporations observing willing individuals. This neglects users' role in 
creating data, reducing incentives for users, distributing the gains from the 
data economy unequally and stoking fears of automation. Instead treating data 
(at least partially) as labor could help resolve these issues and restore a 
functioning market for user contributions, but may run against the near-term 
interests of dominant data monopsonists who have benefited from data being 
treated as 'free'. Countervailing power, in the form of competition, a data 
labor movement and/or thoughtful regulation could help restore balance.

Keywords: data economy, big data, data as labor, artificial intelligence, 
machine learning, monopsony power

JEL Classification: C55, D40, J42, L96

Suggested Citation:

Arrieta Ibarra, Imanol and Goff, Leonard and Jiménez Hernández, Diego and 
Lanier, Jaron and Weyl, Eric Glen, Should We Treat Data as Labor? Moving Beyond 
'Free' (December 27, 2017). American Economic Association Papers & Proceedings, 
Vol. 1, No. 1, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3093683
Imanol Arrieta Ibarra

Stanford University ( )

473 Via Ortega
Stanford, CA 94305-9025
United States

Leonard Goff

Columbia University ( )

New York, NY
United States

Diego Jiménez Hernández

Stanford University ( )

579 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA 94305
United States

HOME PAGE: http://web.stanford.edu/~jimenezh/

Jaron Lanier

Microsoft Corporation ( )

One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
United States

Eric Glen Weyl (Contact Author)

Microsoft Research New York City ( )

641 Avenue of the Americas
7th Floor
New York, NY 10011
United States
8579984513 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.glenweyl.com

RadicalxChange Foundation ( )

HOME PAGE: http://www.radicalxchange.org

Princeton University - Julis Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance ( )

Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544-1021
United States

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