IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ibt/wpaper/wp012020.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Effects of piracy on the American comic book market and the role of digital formats

Author

Listed:
  • Wojciech Hardy

Abstract

Much like the music and movie industries before, the comic book industry has entered the digital markets and faces the unfair competition of unauthorized sources. I conduct a survey among comic book readers to infer whether the unpaid channels harm the sales of comic books from the top American publishers. My data allows me to construct a time panel of comics readers and calculate the substitution rate between the paid and unpaid channels of comics acquisition. Moreover, I show that the digital comics – both paid and unpaid – are typically considered as inferior by the readers. With the price of digitally released new comics set at the same level as their print versions, this suggests that readers who do not want to pay the full price for print copies are more likely to use pirate sources than to switch to legal digital channels. Indeed, among the surveyed sample, lowering the price of digital comics could help convert some of the unpaid acquisitions into paid digital ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Wojciech Hardy, 2020. "Effects of piracy on the American comic book market and the role of digital formats," IBS Working Papers 01/2020, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp012020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ibs.org.pl/app/uploads/2020/03/IBS_Working_Paper_01_2020.pdf
    File Function: English Version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Takeshi Matsui, 2009. "The Diffusion of Foreign Cultural Products: The Case Analysis of Japanese Comics (Manga) Market in the US," Working Papers 1138, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies..
    2. Waldfogel, Joel, 2009. "Lost on the web: Does web distribution stimulate or depress television viewing?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 158-168, June.
    3. Wojciech Hardy & Michał Krawczyk & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2024. "Internet “piracy” and book sales: a field experiment," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 10(2), pages 457-471, December.
    4. Sylvain Dejean, 2009. "What Can We Learn from Empirical Studies About Piracy?," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 55(2), pages 326-352, June.
    5. Brett Danaher & Michael D. Smith & Rahul Telang, 2014. "Piracy and Copyright Enforcement Mechanisms," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 25-61.
    6. Bai, Jie & Waldfogel, Joel, 2012. "Movie piracy and sales displacement in two samples of Chinese consumers," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 187-196.
    7. Herz, Benedikt & Kiljański, Kamil, 2018. "Movie piracy and displaced sales in Europe: Evidence from six countries," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 12-22.
    8. Brett Danaher & Michael D. Smith & Rahul Telang & Siwen Chen, 2014. "The Effect of Graduated Response Anti-Piracy Laws on Music Sales: Evidence from an Event Study in France," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 541-553, September.
    9. Rafael Rob & Joel Waldfogel, 2007. "Piracy On The Silver Screen," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 379-395, September.
    10. Takeshi Matsui, 2009. "The Diffusion of Foreign Cultural Products: The Case Analysis of Japanese Comics (Manga) Market in the US," Working Papers 1138, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies..
    11. repec:pri:cpanda:wp37-matsui is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Stan Liebowitz, 2016. "How much of the decline in sound recording sales is due to file-sharing?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 40(1), pages 13-28, February.
    13. Waldfogel, Joel, 2010. "Music file sharing and sales displacement in the iTunes era," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 306-314, December.
    14. Felix Oberholzer-Gee & Koleman Strumpf, 2007. "The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(1), pages 1-42.
    15. Imke Reimers, 2016. "Can Private Copyright Protection Be Effective? Evidence from Book Publishing," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(2), pages 411-440.
    16. Wojciech Hardy & Michał Krawczyk & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2014. "Internet piracy and book sales: a field experiment," Working Papers 2014-23, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    17. Tatsuo Tanaka, 2016. "The Effects of Internet Book Piracy: The Case of Japanese Comics," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2016-027, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    18. Peitz, Martin & Waldfogel, Joel, 2012. "The Oxford Handbook of the Digital Economy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195397840.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hardy, Wojciech, 2021. "Displacement from piracy in the American comic book market," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    2. Tyrowicz, Joanna & Krawczyk, Michal & Hardy, Wojciech, 2020. "Friends or foes? A meta-analysis of the relationship between “online piracy” and the sales of cultural goods," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. Wojciech Hardy & Michal Krawczyk & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2015. "Friends or foes? A meta-analysis of the link between "online piracy" and sales of cultural goods," Working Papers 2015-23, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    4. Christophe Bellégo & Romain De Nijs, 2020. "The Unintended Consequences of Antipiracy Laws on Markets with Asymmetric Piracy: The Case of the French Movie Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1064-1086, December.
    5. Kanazawa, Kyogo & Kawaguchi, Kohei, 2022. "Displacement effects of public libraries," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Luis Aguiar & Jörg Claussen & Christian Peukert, 2018. "Catch Me If You Can: Effectiveness and Consequences of Online Copyright Enforcement," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 656-678, September.
    7. Brett Danaher & Michael D. Smith & Rahul Telang, 2014. "Piracy and Copyright Enforcement Mechanisms," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 25-61.
    8. Miguel Godinho de Matos & Pedro Ferreira & Michael D. Smith, 2018. "The Effect of Subscription Video-on-Demand on Piracy: Evidence from a Household-Level Randomized Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(12), pages 5610-5630, December.
    9. Tatsuo Tanaka, 2016. "The Effects of Internet Book Piracy: The Case of Japanese Comics," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2016-027, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    10. Tarun Jain & Jishnu Hazra & T. C. Edwin Cheng, 2020. "Illegal Content Monitoring on Social Platforms," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(8), pages 1837-1857, August.
    11. Imke Reimers, 2016. "Can Private Copyright Protection Be Effective? Evidence from Book Publishing," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(2), pages 411-440.
    12. Milan Miric & Lars Bo Jeppesen, 2020. "Does piracy lead to product abandonment or stimulate new product development?: Evidence from mobile platform‐based developer firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(12), pages 2155-2184, December.
    13. Lee, Jonathan F., 2018. "Purchase, pirate, publicize: Private-network music sharing and market album sales," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 35-55.
    14. Sylvain Dejean & Thierry Pénard & Raphaël Suire, 2010. "La gratuité est-elle une fatalité sur les marchés numériques ? Une étude sur le consentement à payer pour des offres de contenus audiovisuels sur internet," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(3), pages 15-32.
    15. Wojciech Hardy & Michał Krawczyk & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2014. "Internet piracy and book sales: a field experiment," Working Papers 2014-23, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    16. McKenzie, Jordi, 2017. "Graduated response policies to digital piracy: Do they increase box office revenues of movies?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-11.
    17. Oberholzer-Gee, Felix & Strumpf, Koleman, 2016. "The effect of file sharing on record sales, revisited," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 61-66.
    18. Markus Pasche, 2014. "Welfare Effects of Endogenous Copyright Enforcement - the Case of Digital Goods," Jena Economics Research Papers 2014-008, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    19. Peukert, Christian, 2024. "Copyright levies and cloud storage: Ex-ante policy evaluation with a field experiment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).
    20. Burmester, Alexa B. & Eggers, Felix & Clement, Michel & Prostka, Tim, 2016. "Accepting or fighting unlicensed usage: Can firms reduce unlicensed usage by optimizing their timing and pricing strategies?," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 343-356.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    comic books; media; digital formats; piracy; file-sharing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp012020. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: IBS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ibswapl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.