[MUD-Dev] Econ paper on EQ

[Koster]

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=294828

			  Virtual Worlds:
A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier

EDWARD CASTRONOVA

  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=277893

	      California State University at Fullerton
			       CESifo
(Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)


December 2001 

CESifo Working Paper Series No. 618 <JavaScript:WinOpen();> 

Abstract: 

In March 1999, a small number of Californians discovered a new world
called "Norrath", populated by an exotic but industrious
people. About 12,000 people call this place their permanent home,
although some 60,000 are present there at any given time. The
nominal hourly wage is about USD 3.42 per hour, and the labors of
the people produce a GNP per capita somewhere between that of Russia
and Bulgaria. A unit of Norrath's currency is traded on exchange
markets at USD 0.0107, higher than the Yen and the Lira. The economy
is characterized by extreme inequality, yet life there is quite
attractive to many. The population is growing rapidly, swollen each
each day by hundreds of emigres from various places around the
globe, but especially the United States. Perhaps the most
interesting thing about the new world is its location. Norrath is a
virtual world that exists entirely on 40 computers in San
Diego. Unlike many internet ventures, virtual worlds are making
money -- with annual revenues expected to top USD 1.5 billion by
2004 -- and if network effects are as powerful here as they have
been with other internet innovations, virtual worlds may soon become
the primary venue for all online activity.

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