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With data rapidly becoming the lifeblood of the global economy, the ability to improve its use significantly affects both social and private welfare. Data standardization is key to facilitating and improving the use of data when data portability and interoperability are needed. Absent data standardization, a "Tower of Babel" of different databases may be created, limiting synergetic knowledge production. Based on interviews with data scientists, this Article identifies three main technological obstacles to data portability and interoperability: metadata uncertainties, data transfer obstacles, and missing data. It then explains how data standardization can remove at least some of these obstacles and lead to smoother data flows and better machine learning. The Article then identifies and analyzes additional effects of data standardization. As shown, data standardization has the potential to support a competitive and distributed data collection ecosystem and lead to easier policing in cases where rights are infringed or unjustified harms are created by data-fed algorithms. At the same time, increasing the scale and scope of data analysis can create negative externalities in the form of better profiling, increased harms to privacy, and cybersecurity harms. Standardization also has implications for investment and innovation, especially if lock-in to an inefficient standard occurs. The Article then explores whether market-led standardization initiatives can be relied upon to increase welfare, and the role governmental-facilitated data standardization should play, if at all.

"Unternehmen und Aktivisten im so genannten 'globalen Süden' halten die sozialen und Umweltstandards der Internationalen Organisation für Normierung (ISO) für berechtigt und angemessen. Die Legitimität der Organisation resultiert aus dem zunehmenden Einschluss nicht-westlicher Akteure und Vertreter aus kolonialisierten Gesellschaften in die internationale Standardisierungsbewegung, wobei dieser Prozess lange vor der Gründung der ISO im Jahr 1946 begann. Seit den 1950er Jahren trugen die Vereinten Nationen zur Schaffung von Standardisierungsorganisationen außerhalb Europas und Nordamerikas bei, die über kurz oder lang Teil des Netzwerkes der ISO wurden. In den 1960er Jahren förderte die ISO die Partizipation aus 'südlichen' Weltregionen, und nach dem Ende des Kalten Krieges schlossen sich nicht-westliche Standardisierungsorganisationen jenen Lobby-Gruppen an, die neue oder erneuerte Demokratien konsolidierten. Gemeinsam erreichte man, dass sich die ISO auch mit den Bereichen Umwelt und Soziales befasste." (Autorenreferat)

PurposeExtensible business reporting language (XBRL) presents new opportunities for integrating the flow of financial information within communities of diverse organizations, thereby significantly enhancing the business information supply chain and addressing existing efficiency, accuracy and transparency problems. Vital to its success, XBRL standardization is proving to be challenging. This paper aims to investigate the phenomena that occur when heterogeneous actors interact in attempts to standardize XBRL.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon actor‐network theory (ANT) the authors "follow the actors" participating in the standardization of XBRL in Australia. Supporting qualitative empirical evidence was collected via interviews and reviews of XBRL artifacts and relevant technical documentation.FindingsThe authors confirm the critical role of focal actors in standardizing XBRL in networks of heterogeneous actors. In addition to clear and indispensable value propositions and solid political and financial support, focal actors must also undertake effective problematization which can determine the manner in which interessement unfolds in their network. It is found that separation or even lack of alignment between technical standardization efforts and social and strategic orientation can be detrimental to translation effectiveness and network stability, and therefore, adversely affect standardization outcomes.Originality/valueBy presenting unsuccessful and potentially successful focal actors side by side, the paper contributes to the current body of knowledge by enhancing current understanding of their role in achieving effective translations in XBRL standardization networks. It also provides the most analytical review to date of actor interaction in XBRL standardization in the literature.

This paper presents a dynamic model, inspired by evolutionary game theory, of how standards and norms emerge in decentralized economies. It shows that standardization outcomes depend on adopters' attitudes to problems caused by incompatibility. If individuals display aversion to incompatibility, standardization never fails to happen eventually, but societies sometimes end up picking inferior standards. In this case, official action can be useful to quickly achieve sensible standardization. On the other hand, when individuals display tolerance or neutrality to incompatibility, there is neither path-dependency nor a lock-in problem, and regulation seems a poor alternative to laissez-faire. (JEL C73, D62, L1)

In the ten minutes I have, I want to apply some of the principles of standardization to the inspection service of the city. Now of course in ten minutes I could not even outline the extent and importance of the inspection work of a city the size of Philadelphia. But that it is important and becomes more so with each extension of the city's activity, is too well known to need repetition. In the first place I want to give some of the results of one very significant attempt at the introduction of standards in the inspection service. This was made by the registrar, in the bureau of water in Philadelphia. What he tried to do was to find the best method of procedure and have it followed, and to keep such records that a standard day's work could be determined.The forty-five inspectors in this division count water fixtures, read meters, and inspect for the waste of water in dwellings. This data is used for the basis of water rent charges. Formerly each inspector was given a certain number of political wards and turned loose to collect his data as he saw fit. He made out his own route. There was no outside supervision, and no one knew for sure how many hours a day a man worked, or indeed whether or not he worked at all.

The paper develops a two country overlapping generations model of product improvement innovation to analyze the evolution of incompatible standards among countries. The paper emphasizes the welfare tradeoff between international standardization of products and the frequency of product improvement innovations. The paper classifies and evaluates various government standardization policies according to their objectives. ; Published in connection with a visit at the IIES.