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The economics of IPR protection policies

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  • Gil, Ricard

    (University of California, Santa Cruz)

Abstract

In this paper, we model competition between legal and pirate products. In our framework, the government affects this competition through police spending and taxes on legal products. Therefore, the government can choose the combination of spending and taxes that best fits its goals. We find that governments that focus entirely on eradicating piracy use lower levels of taxes and police spending than governments that focus on maximizing consumption, consumer surplus, welfare or government size. This result highlights the importance of demand side policies in the fight against piracy and posts a challenge to the traditional solo approach of supply side policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Gil, Ricard, 2006. "The economics of IPR protection policies," IESE Research Papers D/622, IESE Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0622
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Martínez-Sánchez, Francisco, 2010. "Lobbyin to prevent commercial piracy," UMUFAE Economics Working Papers 13255, DIGITUM. Universidad de Murcia.
    2. Markus Pasche, 2014. "Welfare Effects of Endogenous Copyright Enforcement - the Case of Digital Goods," Jena Economics Research Papers 2014-008, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.

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    Keywords

    piracy; pirate products; intellectual property rights; illegal copying; demand side policies;
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