A Generalized Model of Growth in the Data Economy

In this paper, we develop a generalized model to describe the long-run effects of various data types. In addition to the conventional data types generated from consumption activities, we introduce two new types---producer data and nature data---generated from the production process and nature, respectively. To utilize these data, labor is required to collect and clean them; however, we assume no privacy concerns as in previous studies that solely focus on consumer data. Our investigation delves into the balanced growth path and find that the economy's growth rate is higher than that derived from the model using consumer data alone---a revelation previously unreported in existing studies. Moreover, we extend our analysis to incorporate all data types and present a comprehensive picture of the transformations of different growth regimes. Our framework has novel and crucial implications for understanding the developing trend of the data economy.