Latest / The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
The Productivity Paradox of Open Source Software
Open source software powers a huge share of the global digital economy, yet its economic value is notoriously hard to measure. In this episode of The Productivity Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a 2026 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that puts a number on it: open source contributed nearly $9 trillion to global GDP in 2025. They dig into the methods behind that estimate, the challenge of valuing free software, and what it means for productivity statistics and economic policy. They also touch on the hidden cost of maintaining critical libraries like log4j and how companies…
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