Publications
Publications
- January 2022
- Management Science
The Private Impact of Public Data: Landsat Satellite Maps Increased Gold Discoveries and Encouraged Entry
By: Abhishek Nagaraj
Abstract
How does public data shape the relative performance of incumbents and entrants in the private sector? Using a simple theoretical framework, I argue that public data reduces investment uncertainty, facilitates the discovery of new market opportunities and increases the relative market share of new entrants relative to incumbents. I shed light on these predictions by estimating the impact of public data from Landsat, a NASA satellite mapping program, on the discovery rates of new deposits by incumbents (seniors) and entrants (juniors) in the gold exploration industry. I exploit idiosyncratic timing variation and cloud cover in Landsat coverage across regions to identify the causal effect of public data on the patterns of gold discovery. I find that Landsat data nearly doubled the rate of significant gold discoveries after a region was mapped and increased the market share of new entrants from about 10% to 25%. Public data seems to play an important, yet relatively underexplored, role in driving performance differences across firms.
Keywords
Public Data; Maps; Gold; Microeconomic Behavior; Economics; Data and Data Sets; Private Sector; Market Entry and Exit; Mining
Citation
Nagaraj, Abhishek. "The Private Impact of Public Data: Landsat Satellite Maps Increased Gold Discoveries and Encouraged Entry." Management Science 68, no. 1 (January 2022): 564–582.