Replication data for: Copyright and Generic Entry in Book Publishing

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Imke Reimers

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  data 10/26/2021 02:47:PM
LICENSE.txt text/plain 14.6 KB 12/07/2019 10:09:AM

Project Citation: 

Reimers, Imke. Replication data for: Copyright and Generic Entry in Book Publishing. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2019. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-12-07. https://doi.org/10.3886/E116435V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Taking works off copyright promotes their availability, but it also allows generic entry to dissipate producer surplus. This paper examines the effect of a copyright on the availability and price of books when incentives to create new works are not affected. Evaluating the welfare impact of the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, I find that a copyright significantly limits the availability of works, leading to a decrease in consumer surplus, which is significantly larger than any increases in profits to copyright holders. Without changing incentives to create new content, the copyright extension was economically inefficient.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      L11 Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
      L17 Open Source Products and Markets
      L82 Entertainment; Media
      O34 Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States: Amazon & Project Gutenberg
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 4/1/2011 – 4/1/2012
Universe:  View help for Universe All books that made the annual Top 10 Fiction Bestseller lists in any year from 1910 to 1936. For those books, all editions found on Amazon's first search page.
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) observational data

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source Three websites: Amazon.com; www.novelrank.com; www.gutenberg.org
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Book editions by month,

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-12-07]

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