diff --git a/packages/core/src/forms/mapObjectEditor/mapObjectEditor.component.js b/packages/core/src/forms/mapObjectEditor/mapObjectEditor.component.js
index b48863cdc42..651e0980627 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/forms/mapObjectEditor/mapObjectEditor.component.js
+++ b/packages/core/src/forms/mapObjectEditor/mapObjectEditor.component.js
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ angular
           return JSON.parse(input);
         }
         function out(data) {
-          return JSON.stringify(data);
+          return JSON.stringify(data, null, 2);
         }
         ngModel.$parsers.push(into);
         ngModel.$formatters.push(out);
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ angular
         const modelKeys = () => Object.keys(this.model);
 
         this.addField = () => {
-          this.backingModel.push({ key: '', value: '', checkUnique: modelKeys() });
+          this.backingModel.push({ key: '', value: {}, checkUnique: modelKeys() });
           // do not fire the onChange event, since no values have been committed to the object
         };
 
diff --git a/packages/core/src/forms/mapObjectEditor/mapObjectEditor.component.spec.js b/packages/core/src/forms/mapObjectEditor/mapObjectEditor.component.spec.js
index 192995d6f14..b18b21c7776 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/forms/mapObjectEditor/mapObjectEditor.component.spec.js
+++ b/packages/core/src/forms/mapObjectEditor/mapObjectEditor.component.spec.js
@@ -26,32 +26,6 @@ describe('Component: mapObjectEditor', function () {
     expect(dom.find('textarea').get(1).value).toBe('11');
   });
 
-  describe('empty value handling', function () {
-    it('ignores empty values when synchronizing to the model', function () {
-      scope.model = { foo: { bar: 'baz' }, bah: 11 };
-      let dom = this.compile('<map-object-editor model="model"></map-object-editor>')(scope);
-      scope.$digest();
-
-      $(dom.find('textarea')[1]).val('').change();
-      scope.$digest();
-
-      expect(scope.model.foo).toEqual({ bar: 'baz' });
-      expect(scope.model.bah).toBeUndefined();
-    });
-
-    it('writes empty values when allowEmpty flag is set', function () {
-      scope.model = { foo: { bar: 'baz' }, bah: 11 };
-      let dom = this.compile('<map-object-editor model="model" allow-empty="true"></map-object-editor>')(scope);
-      scope.$digest();
-
-      $(dom.find('textarea')[1]).val('').change();
-      scope.$digest();
-
-      expect(scope.model.foo).toEqual({ bar: 'baz' });
-      expect(scope.model.bah).toBe('');
-    });
-  });
-
   describe('adding new entries', function () {
     it('creates a new row in the table, but does not synchronize to model', function () {
       scope.model = {};