Abstract
Previous research has found re-use of PSI as open data to have signifcant economic value, both for companies and for society at large. As geospatioal data forms the major part of the PSI currently sold by public sector entities, the economic value of such data can also be assumed to account for a sigficiant part of the re-use value. The introduction of the EU PSI Directive has created a discussion of the economic impact of releasing this data as open data. In this paper data from all Swedish Government authorities who currently have income from sales of geospatial data, and from a selection of municipalities, is used to calculate the economic impact of making geospatial data available as open data, i.e available at marginal cost. It is estimated that, with very conservative assumptions - and without factoring in potential benefits from increased efficiency in the public sector, nor benefits from new services – that the dissemination of geospatial data as open data would provide benefits with a net present value of 200 Million SEK. It is also found that most municipalities and Government authorities have insignificant income from sales of geospatial data and that their estimated costs of opening existing data sets are low. The paper also suggest a number of areas where the availability of open geospatial data may create further societal value.