Dead poets' propertyhow does copyright influence price?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Li, Xing; MacGarvie, Megan; Moser, Petra
• 署名单位: Peking University; Boston University; New York University
• 刊物名称: RAND JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0741-6261
• DOI: 10.1111/1756-2171.12223
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 181-205
• 关键词: secondary markets

摘要

Copyrights create long-lived intellectual property in goods ranging from science, literature, and music to news, film, and software. The economic effects of copyright, however, are difficult to identify in modern settings. This article exploits an unintended differential increase in copyright length under the UK Copyright Act of 1814in favor of books by dead authorsto examine the effects of longer copyright terms on price. We find that a doubling in copyright length was associated with a substantial (roughly 50%) increase in the price of books. Additional years of copyright improved publishers' ability to practice intertemporal price discrimination.