World Data Organization: Filling the Institutional Gap in Cross-Border Data Governance

Data has become a key factor of production in the digital economy, yet its governance remains institutionally fragmented across borders. This paper asks why a resource with global quasi-public-good properties, whose value depends on cross-border reuse and recombination, has not generated a corresponding institutional supply for trusted international cooperation. Drawing on a public-good diagnosis and comparative institutional analysis, we argue that the central problem is not simply regulatory divergence, but the underprovision of the governance conditions required for credible, scalable, and sustainable cross-border data use. Existing arrangements make important but partial contributions, yet their mandates, scopes, and enforcement logics remain too fragmented to form a coherent governance architecture for a global data ecosystem. In response, we propose a World Data Organization (WDO) as a complementary focal arrangement designed to address this institutional gap. The paper contributes by reframing cross-border data governance as a digital economy problem of quasi-public-good governance, explaining why current arrangements remain structurally insufficient, and outlining a conceptual blueprint for a more integrated institutional response toward a sustainable global data ecosystem.