Open data offers a new start for economic reform and productivity growth. Leveraging the new possibilities of the Internet to make better use of existing resources, it offers us a way of getting past the political economy of winners and losers.

This report illustrates the potential economic value of reinvigorating the open data agenda in Australia and the G20. Our review of the literature, our modeling, and our case study scenarios show how an open data focus could promote the themes of the G20 agenda—trade, finance, fiscal and monetary policy, anti-corruption, employment, energy, and infrastructure— and in so doing achieve more than half of the G20’s 2% growth target.