Rob and Waldfogel (2007)
Contents
Source Details
Rob and Waldfogel (2007) | |
Title: | Piracy on the silver screen |
Author(s): | Rob, R., Waldfogel, J. |
Year: | 2007 |
Citation: | Rob, R., & Waldfogel, J. (2007). Piracy on the Silver Screen. The Journal of Industrial Economics, 55(3), 379-395. |
Link(s): | Definitive |
Key Related Studies: | |
Discipline: | |
Linked by: | Bai and Waldfogel (2012), Danaher and Waldfogel (2012), Danaher, Dhanasobhon, Smith and Telang (2010), Herz and Kiljański (2016), Mortimer, Nosko and Sorensen (2012), Poort et al (2018), Smith and Telang (2010), Van der Ende et al (2014), Zentner (2010) |
About the Data | |
Data Description: | The data for this study are derived from a series of surveys administered to 470 Penn undergraduates in economics classes in spring and late fall, 2005. In each survey, students see a list of the top 50 movies fromeach of the previous three years (2002–2004 in spring 2005, and 2003–2005 year to date in fall 2005). For each movie they are asked whether they saw it, as well as the sequence by which they saw it. Respondents can have seen a movie by any (and any combination) of 4 paid methods: theater, television, rental, and purchase; as well as by either or both of two unpaid methods: by viewing a downloaded copy, or by viewing a burned copy of a legally obtained copy (generally DVD). For each movie seen, a respondent enters a ‘1’ under the mode they first saw it, a ‘2’ under the mode by which they saw it next (if they saw it more than once), and so on.
In addition to asking about their movie consumption, the survey also asks about family income, respondent’s race and age, speed of Internet access, and three variables related to their interest in movies: how often they go to movie theaters, howmany movies they own, and their (self-reported) level of interest in movies on a five-point scale. The sample includes nearly 21,000 instances of movie consumption. |
Data Type: | Primary data |
Secondary Data Sources: | |
Data Collection Methods: | |
Data Analysis Methods: | |
Industry(ies): | |
Country(ies): | |
Cross Country Study?: | No |
Comparative Study?: | No |
Literature review?: | No |
Government or policy study?: | No |
Time Period(s) of Collection: |
|
Funder(s): |
Abstract
Using survey data on movie consumption by about 500 University of Pennsylvania undergraduate students, we ask whether unpaid consumption of movies displaces paid consumption. A variety of crosssectional and longitudinal empirical approaches show large and statistically significant evidence of displacement. In the most appropriate empirical specification, we find that unpaid first consumption reduces paid consumption by about 1 unit. Unpaid second consumption has a smaller effect, about 0.20 units. Our analysis indicates that unpaid consumption, which makes up 5.2 per cent of movie viewing in our sample, reduced paid consumption in our sample by 3.5 per cent.
Main Results of the Study
The main results of the study relate to:
- The rate of displacement caused by piracy: the number of movies are not purchased for each movie that is pirated.
- The amount of displacement: the amount of paid consumption displaced by unpaid consumption.
The main results of the study are as follows:
- The overall finding is that, although the rate of displacement is large (1.0), the amount of displacement is small. Only a small fraction of consumption in our sample, 5.2%, is unpaid consumption.
- Paralleling this movie revenues have grown significantly (39%) over the last four years, and the bulk of this increase is attributed to DVD sales (despite the fact that DVD sales suffer the most from piracy).
- The rate of displacement we have estimated is sufficiently high that piracy continues to be a serious concern as the technologies allowing unpaid consumption improve and diffuse widely.
- The large rate of displacement coupled with low amount of displacement finding of the study differs significantly from the authors' previous research on the music industry. In music the pattern is reversed: low rate of displacement accompanying the high volume of unpaid music consumption.
Policy Implications as Stated By Author
None stated
Coverage of Study
Datasets
Sample size: | 470 |
Level of aggregation: | University students |
Period of material under study: | 2002-2005 |