Anti-rival goods.html

An anti-rival good is a good created by a process of reciprocal exchange for mutual benefit. The term is a neologism coined by Steven Weber. Examples include free software and open source software.

An anti-rival good meets the test of a public good because it is non-excludable (freely available to all) and non-rival (consumption by one person does not reduce the amount available for others). However it has the additional quality of being created by private individuals for common benefit without being motivated by pure altruism, because the individual contributor also receives benefits from the contributions of others. In evolutionary biology, this mode of production and exchange is called reciprocal altruism.

An example is provided by Lawrence Lessig:

It's not just that (open source) code is non-rival; it's that code in particular, and (at least some) knowledge in general, is, as Weber calls it, 'anti-rival'. I am not only not harmed when you share an anti-rival good: I benefit.

—Lawrence Lessig

The production of anti-rival goods appears to benefit from the network effect. Leung (2006) offers this quote from Weber (2004):

Under conditions of anti-rivalness, as the size of the Internet-connected group increases, and there is a heterogeneous distribution of motivations with people who have a high level of interest and some resources to invest, then the large group is more likely, all things being equal, to provide the good than is a small group.

—Weber, Leung (2006)

Although the term "anti-rival good" is a neologism, this category of goods may be neither new nor specific to the Internet era. According to Lessig, a particular natural language also meets the criteria:

Language is an anti-rival good: not only does your speaking English not restrict me, your speaking it benefits me. The more people who speak a language, the more useful that language is... to those who speak it.

—Lawrence Lessig

The term also invokes Reciprocity (cultural anthropology) and the concept of a gift economy. See also Private good and Good (economics and accounting).

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Types of goods

public good - private good - common good - common-pool resource - club good - anti-rival good

(non-)rivalrous good and (non-)excludable good
complementary good vs. substitute good
free good vs. positional good

(non-)durable good - intermediate good (producer good) - final good - capital good

inferior good - normal good - ordinary good - Giffen good - luxury good - Veblen good - superior good

search good - (post-)experience good - merit good - credence good - demerit good - composite good

References and further reading

Lessig, L. "Do You Floss?". London Review of Books. Retrieved on November 14, 2006.
Leung, T. "(Review) The Success of Open Source". Sauria Associates. Retrieved on November 15, 2006.
von Hippel, E. (2005), Democratizing Innovation, The MIT Press, ISBN 978-0-262-00274-5.
Weber, S. (2004), The Success of Open Source, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-01292-9.
Federalist Blog: Is Technology a Public Good?