Bestseller Lists and Product Variety: The Case of Book Sales

Stanford GSB Research Paper No. 1878

32 Pages Posted: 12 Jan 2005

See all articles by Alan T. Sorensen

Alan T. Sorensen

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: June 2004

Abstract

This paper uses detailed weekly data on sales of hardcover fiction books to evaluate the impact of the New York Times bestseller list on sales and product variety. In order to circumvent the obvious problem of simultaneity of sales and bestseller status, the analysis exploits time lags and accidental omissions in the construction of the list. The empirical results indicate that appearing on the list leads to a modest increase in sales for the average book, and that the effect is more dramatic for bestsellers by debut authors. The paper discusses how the additional concentration of demand on top-selling books could lead to a reduction in the privately optimal number of books to publish. However, the data suggest the opposite is true: the market expansion effect of bestseller lists appears to dominate any business stealing from non-bestselling titles.

Suggested Citation

Sorensen, Alan T., Bestseller Lists and Product Variety: The Case of Book Sales (June 2004). Stanford GSB Research Paper No. 1878, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=647608 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.647608

Alan T. Sorensen (Contact Author)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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