Matthew Kahn at the Env-Urb-Econ blog is still working on the benefits and costs of blogs:
How much do people gain from reading economics blogs? Since the price equals zero for accessing everyone’s blogs, we have no way to sketch out a demand curve and measure consumer surplus. ... But putting a dollar value on the benefits of economics blogs would be harder problem to solve.
I left this comment:
The data to estimate the cost/lower bound benefit of visiting your blog is in your site meter data. Assume the average wage rate, multiply by time spent at blog, multiply by number of visits and bingo, an estimate.
So what is the lower bound of the social value of the env-econ blog?
According to the BLS, wages and salaries average $18.22 per hour (I'm leaving out benefits). Our site-meter says that we get about 300 4-minute visits per day. This mean that each visitor, assuming the average wage, wastes, er, spends about $1.21 in time costs per visit ($18.22*4/60). The daily value of time spent at env-econ is $364.40 ($1.21*300). Assuming that the visit benefits are greater than the visit costs, the lower bound on the social value of the env-econ blog is $364.40/day.
Also, Matthew says this:
Another obvious reason for why bloggers blog and may even invest a fair bit of time at this activity is status. What can a middle aged academic who is not at a top 20 research institution do to raise his visibility? Academic economists rarely go to the library and actually read the American Economic Review or other leading journals. Blogging is a relatively cheap way to reach others. Blogs like all ideas are public goods. The Internet offers a zero cost distribution network to billions of people. Somebody out there may even consider some us to be clever and insightful.
Guilty as charged: middle-aged, not at a top-20 research institution, clever, insightful, etc. All except for the AER part, I can't quite cut it there.
One extension, the env-econ blog trying to reach a broader, non-economist, audience, not just other economists who don't read our journal articles. I'm not sure we're after much status there.
Tim, why are we doing this again?
