Smith and Telang (2012)
Contents
Source Details
Smith and Telang (2012) | |
Title: | Assessing the Academic Literature Regarding the Impact of Media Piracy on Sales |
Author(s): | Michael D. Smith, Rahul Telang |
Year: | 2012 |
Citation: | Smith, M.D. and Telang, R., 2012. Assessing the academic literature regarding the impact of media piracy on sales. Available at SSRN 2132153. |
Link(s): | Definitive , Open Access |
Key Related Studies: | |
Discipline: | |
Linked by: | Peukert, Claussen and Kretschmer (2015), Poort and Weda (2015), Poort et al. (2014) |
About the Data | |
Data Description: | This study is a literature review and has no original data. |
Data Type: | |
Secondary Data Sources: | |
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Data Analysis Methods: | |
Industry(ies): | |
Country(ies): | |
Cross Country Study?: | No |
Comparative Study?: | No |
Literature review?: | Yes |
Government or policy study?: | No |
Time Period(s) of Collection: |
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Abstract
The goal of this paper is to provide a “non‐technical” discussion of what the academic literatures in economics, marketing, and information systems can tell us about how piracy impacts sales of media products. Within these literatures, we have chosen to focus on empirical studies of the impact of piracy because, while there are a variety of analytic models proposing theories of how piracy might impact sales, we believe that the true test of these theories starts with data.
Based on our review of the empirical literature we conclude that, while some papers in the literature find no evidence of harm, the vast majority of the literature (particularly the literature published in top peer reviewed journals) finds evidence that piracy harms media sales.
Main Results of the Study
To summarize, while the academic literature is not uniform in finding harm, taken as a whole we see a very consistent story across the academic literature: With one exception, all of the papers we are aware of which have been published in major peer-reviewed academic journals find evidence of statistically significant harm to sales of recently released content as a result of illegal file sharing. These papers span a variety of methods, time periods, and contexts. Moreover, while the one dissenting paper should be lauded for innovative methods of data collection, and for being among the very first papers published addressing this question, there have been significant questions raised about the appropriateness of its instrumental variable, and as such we believe it is appropriate to weigh its finding that piracy does not harm sales relative to the large number of papers with opposite findings.
Policy Implications as Stated By Author
Based on our review of the empirical literature we conclude that, while some papers in the literature find no evidence of harm, the vast majority of the literature (particularly the literature published in top peer reviewed journals) finds evidence that piracy harms media sales.