IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/war/wpaper/2015-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Friends or foes? A meta-analysis of the link between "online piracy" and sales of cultural goods

Author

Listed:
  • Wojciech Hardy

    (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw)

  • Michal Krawczyk

    (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw)

  • Joanna Tyrowicz

    (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw; National Bank of Poland)

Abstract

Over the past decade or so, the literature has sprung in analyses of the impact the so-called online or digital "piracy" has on sales. Since theory posits both positive and negative effects are possible, the question remains purely empirical. Consequently, there is a variety of published articles and working papers arguing in both ways, many of which attempt to account for the challenge of providing a reliable and causal effect. The objective of this survey is to review and discuss the accomplishments of the field so far. We also provide a tentative meta-analysis. Despite the multiplicity of measures and methods used we argue that the literature as a whole fails to reject the null hypothesis of no effects on sales.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:war:wpaper:2015-23
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.wne.uw.edu.pl/index.php/download_file/1878/
    File Function: First version, 2015
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bae, Sang Hoo & Choi, Jay Pil, 2006. "A model of piracy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 303-320, September.
    2. Chia-chen Wang & Chin-ta Chen & Shu-chen Yang & Cheng-kiang Farn, 2009. "Pirate or Buy? The Moderating Effect of Idolatry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(1), pages 81-93, November.
    3. Rob, Rafael & Waldfogel, Joel, 2006. "Piracy on the High C's: Music Downloading, Sales Displacement, and Social Welfare in a Sample of College Students," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(1), pages 29-62, April.
    4. 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.
    5. Liebowitz, Stan J., 2017. "A replication of four quasi-experiments and three facts from "The effect of file sharing on record sales: an empirical analysis" (Journal of Political Economy, 2007)," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 11, pages 1-22.
    6. Lonnie Stevans & David Sessions, 2005. "An Empirical Investigation Into the Effect of Music Downloading on the Consumer Expenditure of Recorded Music: A Time Series Approach," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 311-324, September.
    7. Leung, Tin Cheuk, 2015. "Music piracy: Bad for record sales but good for the iPod?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-12.
    8. 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.
    9. Kathleen Reavis Conner & Richard P. Rumelt, 1991. "Software Piracy: An Analysis of Protection Strategies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(2), pages 125-139, February.
    10. Stan J. Liebowitz, 2008. "Research Note--Testing File Sharing's Impact on Music Album Sales in Cities," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(4), pages 852-859, April.
    11. Joel Waldfogel, 2011. "Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie? The Supply of New Recorded Music Since Napster," NBER Working Papers 16882, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Zentner, Alejandro, 2006. "Measuring the Effect of File Sharing on Music Purchases," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(1), pages 63-90, April.
    13. Brett Danaher & Samita Dhanasobhon & Michael D. Smith & Rahul Telang, 2010. "Converting Pirates Without Cannibalizing Purchasers: The Impact of Digital Distribution on Physical Sales and Internet Piracy," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 1138-1151, 11-12.
    14. Stan J. Liebowitz & Alejandro Zentner, 2012. "Clash of the Titans: Does Internet use Reduce Television Viewing?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(1), pages 234-245, February.
    15. Sudip Bhattacharjee & Ram D. Gopal & Kaveepan Lertwachara & James R. Marsden & Rahul Telang, 2007. "The Effect of Digital Sharing Technologies on Music Markets: A Survival Analysis of Albums on Ranking Charts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(9), pages 1359-1374, September.
    16. Adermon, Adrian & Liang, Che-Yuan, 2010. "Piracy, Music, And Movies: A Natural Experiment," Working Paper Series 2010:18, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    17. Peitz, Martin & Waelbroeck, Patrick, 2006. "Piracy of digital products: A critical review of the theoretical literature," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 449-476, November.
    18. Rafael Rob & Joel Waldfogel, 2007. "Piracy On The Silver Screen," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 379-395, September.
    19. Mortimer, Julie Holland & Nosko, Chris & Sorensen, Alan, 2012. "Supply responses to digital distribution: Recorded music and live performances," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 3-14.
    20. Peukert, Christian & Claussen, Jörg & Kretschmer, Tobias, 2017. "Piracy and box office movie revenues: Evidence from Megaupload," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 188-215.
    21. Aguiar, Luis & Waldfogel, Joel, 2018. "As streaming reaches flood stage, does it stimulate or depress music sales?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 278-307.
    22. Balestrino, Alessandro, 2008. "It is a theft but not a crime," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 455-469, June.
    23. Peukert, Christian & Claussen, Jörg & Kretschmer, Tobias, 2013. "Piracy and Movie Revenues: Evidence from Megaupload. A Tale of the Long Tail?," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79697, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    24. Arthur Vany & W. Walls, 2007. "Estimating the Effects of Movie Piracy on Box-office Revenue," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 30(4), pages 291-301, June.
    25. J. McKenzie & W. D. Walls, "undated". "File Sharing and Film Revenues: An Empirical Analysis," Working Papers 2013-01, Department of Economics, University of Calgary.
    26. repec:wly:soecon:v:81:2:y:2014:p:387-408 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. 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.
    28. Felix Oberholzer-Gee & Koleman Strumpf, 2010. "File Sharing and Copyright," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(1), pages 19-55.
    29. Paul BELLEFLAMME, 2016. "The economics of digital goods: a progress report," LIDAM Reprints CORE 2819, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    30. Birgitte Andersen & Marion Frenz, 2010. "Don’t blame the P2P file-sharers: the impact of free music downloads on the purchase of music CDs in Canada," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 715-740, October.
    31. Ram D. Gopal & G. Lawrence Sanders, 2006. "Do Artists Benefit from Online Music Sharing?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(3), pages 1503-1534, May.
    32. Martin Peitz & Patrick Waelbroeck, 2004. "The Effect of Internet Piracy on CD Sales: Cross-Section Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 1122, CESifo.
    33. Tanaka, Tatsuo & 田中, 辰雄, 2004. "Does file sharing reduce music CD sales?: A case of Japan," IIR Working Paper 05-08, Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    34. Peitz, Martin & Waelbroeck, Patrick, 2006. "Why the music industry may gain from free downloading -- The role of sampling," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 907-913, September.
    35. Sylvain Dejean, 2009. "What Can We Learn from Empirical Studies About Piracy?," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 55(2), pages 326-352, June.
    36. Zentner, Alejandro, 2008. "Online sales, Internet use, file sharing, and the decline of retail music specialty stores," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 288-300, September.
    37. 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.
    38. Liye Ma & Alan L. Montgomery & Param Vir Singh & Michael D. Smith, 2014. "An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Pre-Release Movie Piracy on Box Office Revenue," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(3), pages 590-603, September.
    39. 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.
    40. Michel Norbert J, 2006. "The Impact of Digital File Sharing on the Music Industry: An Empirical Analysis," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-24, September.
    41. Seung‐Hyun Hong, 2013. "Measuring The Effect Of Napster On Recorded Music Sales: Difference‐In‐Differences Estimates Under Compositional Changes," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 297-324, March.
    42. King, Stephen P. & Lampe, Ryan, 2003. "Network externalities, price discrimination and profitable piracy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 271-290, September.
    43. Aguiar, Luis & Martens, Bertin, 2016. "Digital music consumption on the Internet: Evidence from clickstream data," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 27-43.
    44. Adermon, Adrian & Liang, Che-Yuan, 2014. "Piracy and music sales: The effects of an anti-piracy law," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 90-106.
    45. David Bounies & Marc Bourreau & Patrick Waelbroeck, 2007. "Pirates or Explorers ?Analysis of Music Consumption in French Graduate Schools," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 50(2), pages 167-192.
    46. Tylor Orme, 2014. "The short- and long-term effectiveness of anti-piracy laws and enforcement actions," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(4), pages 351-368, November.
    47. Danaher, Brett & Smith, Michael D., 2014. "Gone in 60 Seconds: The Impact of the Megaupload Shutdown on Movie Sales," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 1-8.
    48. Yeh-ning Chen & Ivan Png, 2003. "Information Goods Pricing and Copyright Enforcement: Welfare Analysis," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 107-123, March.
    49. 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.
    50. 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.
    51. Martyna Kobus & Michał Krawczyk, 2013. "Piracy as an ethical decision," Working Papers 2013-22, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    52. Emmi Martikainen, 2014. "Does file-sharing reduce DVD sales?," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 9-31, July.
    53. Luis Aguiar & Bertin Martens, 2013. "Digital music consumption on the internet," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2013-04, Joint Research Centre.
    54. Felix Oberholzer-Gee & Koleman Strumpf, 2010. "File Sharing and Copyright," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 10, pages 19-55, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    55. George Barker & Tim Maloney, 2015. "The impact of internet file-sharing on the purchase of music CDs in Canada," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 821-848, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anna Kukla-Gryz & Joanna Tyrowicz & Michał Krawczyk, 2021. "Digital piracy and the perception of price fairness: evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 45(1), pages 105-131, March.

    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. 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).
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. C. Bellégo & R. De Nijs, 2015. "The redistributive effect of online piracy on the box office performance of American movies in foreign markets," Documents de Travail de l'Insee - INSEE Working Papers g2015-17, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques.
    5. Marc Bourreau & Marianne Lumeau & Francois Moreau & Jordana Viotto da Cruz, 2019. "Recent or Free? An Experimental Study of the Motivations for Pirating Movies," CESifo Working Paper Series 8036, CESifo.
    6. Shinichi Yamaguchi & Hirohide Sakaguchi & Kotaro Iyanaga & Hidetaka Oshima & Tatsuo Tanaka, 2023. "The impact of licensed and unlicensed free goods: an empirical analysis of music, video, and book industries in Japan," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 1-22, March.
    7. 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.
    8. Kanazawa, Kyogo & Kawaguchi, Kohei, 2022. "Displacement effects of public libraries," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. 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.
    10. Markus Pasche, 2014. "Welfare Effects of Endogenous Copyright Enforcement - the Case of Digital Goods," Jena Economics Research Papers 2014-008, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    11. Adermon, Adrian & Liang, Che-Yuan, 2014. "Piracy and music sales: The effects of an anti-piracy law," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 90-106.
    12. Hardy, Wojciech, 2021. "Displacement from piracy in the American comic book market," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. Emmi Martikainen, 2014. "Does file-sharing reduce DVD sales?," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 9-31, July.
    16. Christian Peukert & Margaritha Windisch, 2023. "The Economics of Copyright in the Digital Age," CESifo Working Paper Series 10687, CESifo.
    17. Wojciech Hardy & Michal Krawczyk & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2014. "Internet piracy and book sales: A field experiment," Artefactual Field Experiments 00696, The Field Experiments Website.
    18. Aguiar, Luis & Martens, Bertin, 2016. "Digital music consumption on the Internet: Evidence from clickstream data," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 27-43.
    19. Bradley, Wendy A. & Kolev, Julian, 2023. "How does digital piracy affect innovation? Evidence from software firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(3).
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    digital piracy; cultural goods; meta analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    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:war:wpaper:2015-23. 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: Marcin Bąba (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fesuwpl.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.