Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/286590 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
ifo Working Paper No. 407
Publisher: 
ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, Munich
Abstract: 
Are national borders an impediment to online collaboration in the knowledge economy? Unlike in goods trade, knowledge workers can collaborate fully virtually, such that border effects might be eliminated. Here we study collaboration patterns of some 144,000 European developers on the largest online code repository platform, GitHub. To assess the presence of border effects we deploy a gravity model that explains developers' inter-regional collaboration networks. We find a sizable border effect of -16.4%, which is, however, five to six times smaller than in trade. The border effect is entirely explained by cultural factors such as common language, shared interests, and historical ties. The international border effect in Europe is much larger than the state border effect in the US, where cross-border cultural differences are much less pronounced, further strengthening our conjecture that culture is a main driver of the border effect in virtual collaboration.
Subjects: 
digitization
software development
knowledge work
culture
language
JEL: 
F66
J61
O31
O33
O36
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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