The Monetary Value of Virtual Goods

With the rise of multi-player online games and virtual worlds - from World of Warcraft to Second Life - we have witnessed the development of vibrant virtual communities, in which participants spend a dozen and more hours a week online. But how do participants value - in economic terms - the time they spend online?

One way of answering this question is by looking at the value of virtual goods created and traded online. To this end post-doctoral fellow Qiu-Hong Wang advanced a research project that used a mix of theoretical modeling, experiments, and time series data analysis to offer robust answers for how valuable time spent in virtual worlds is - and which factors mostly determine that value.

The paper is currently under review and will be available here in draft form shortly.