Authors
Lian Jian, Jeffrey K MacKie-Mason
Publication date
2008/8/19
Book
Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Electronic commerce
Pages
1-8
Description
Prior theory and empirical work emphasize the enormous free-riding problem facing peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing networks. Nonetheless, many P2P networks thrive. We explore two possible explanations that do not rely on altruism or explicit mechanisms imposed on the network: direct and indirect private incentives for the provision of public goods. The direct incentive is a traffic redistribution effect that advantages the sharing peer. We find this incentive is likely insufficient to motivate equilibrium content sharing in large networks. We then approach P2P networks as a graph-theoretic problem and present sufficient conditions for sharing and free-riding to co-exist due to indirect incentives we call generalized reciprocity.
Total citations
200720082009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024212678822111121
Scholar articles
L Jian, JK MacKie-Mason - Proceedings of the 10th international conference on …, 2008
JK MacKie-Mason, L Jian - Available at SSRN 973998, 2006