Why is open access to public sector information important for the economy? Because the public sector is a major, even the dominant, producer of many kinds of information (Pollock, 2008; Janssen, 2011). Besides this, is somehow regulator on the flow of this information and it provides the legal frameworks which enable to create added value on top of the information.
PSI reuse presents qualitative and quantitative differences with other economic fields. The first differential point is that we are dealing with digital information. From the economic point of view, this information has a copy cost close to zero, but with a high production and maintenance cost (Shapiro & Varian, 1999; Pollock, 2008). The second difference to consider is that part of this information is published as a result of transparency policies and therefore, it is an assumed cost for the governments. Therefore economic modelling or return of investment calculus is out of the scope of the Public Administrations under this approach.
The third difference is that public sector information is a subject with a virtuous economic circle. The bigger ability to connect PSI sources and the higher availability, the more useful and more added value is possible to be created.