This study by Yuya Shibuya empirically analyzes the impacts of open data on behavioral change by investigating the case of Taiwan.

This study empirically analyzes the impacts of open data on behavioral change by investigating the case of Taiwan. In Taiwan, each retailer’s mask stock level was made publicly open, enabling citizens to check the availability of masks at nearby stores from their smartphones in near real-time. This study analyzes citizens’ mask purchase behaviors by using data on the number of masks sold at 1658 stores in 55 regions in Taiwan and the usage of the mask map at the area level. This study found that the average of daily sold mask numbers per store per household among stores located in mask map use areas was fewer than those of other stores by 2.079. These results indicate a reduced panic buying behavior as a consequence of the openly accessible information in the form of an online mask map. Furthermore, the results also suggested that such open-data-based countermeasures did not equally impact every citizen and rather varied among socioeconomic conditions, particularly the education level (average effect of mask map usage: -14.514).