An Economic Basis for Open Standards

Rishab A. Ghosh, Programme Leader, FLOSS and Senior Researcher at the United Nations University

12/03/2007
(Original Publish Date: 12/1/2005)

An overview of standards and standard-setting processes. A description of the economic effect of technology standards and between the impact on competition and welfare that various levels of standards have. It is argued that most of what is claimed for “open standards” in recent policy debates was already well encompassed by the term “standards”; a different term is needed only if it is defined clearly in order to provide a distinct economic effect.