Dead Poet's Property - How Does Copyright Influence Price?

48 Pages Posted: 8 Sep 2015 Last revised: 23 Apr 2023

See all articles by Xing Li

Xing Li

Peking University - Guanghua School of Management

Megan MacGarvie

Boston University School of Management; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Petra Moser

NYU Stern Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: September 2015

Abstract

This article exploits a differential increase in copyright under the UK Copyright Act of 1814 - in favor of books by dead authors – to examine the influence of longer copyrights on price. Difference-in-differences analyses, which compare changes in the price of books by dead and living authors, indicate a substantial increase in price in response to an extension in copyright length. By comparison, placebo regressions for books by dead authors that did not benefit from the extension indicate no differential increase. Historical evidence suggests that longer copyrights increase price by improving publishers’ ability to practice intertemporal price discrimination.

Suggested Citation

Li, Xing and MacGarvie, Megan and Moser, Petra, Dead Poet's Property - How Does Copyright Influence Price? (September 2015). NBER Working Paper No. w21522, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2656905

Xing Li (Contact Author)

Peking University - Guanghua School of Management ( email )

Peking University
Beijing, Beijing 100871
China

Megan MacGarvie

Boston University School of Management ( email )

595 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Petra Moser

NYU Stern Department of Economics ( email )

44 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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