The Pricing of Academic Journals: A Two-Sided Market Perspective
Abstract
More and more academic journals adopt an open-access policy, by which articles are accessible free of charge, while publication costs are recovered through author fees. We study the consequences of this open access policy on a journal’s quality standard. If the journal’s objective was to maximize social welfare, open access would be optimal as long as the positive externalities generated by its diffusion exceed the marginal cost of distribution. However, we show that if an open access journal has a different objective (such as maximizing readers’ utility, the impact of the journal or its profit), it tends to choose a quality standard below the socially efficient level.Download Info
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Paper provided by Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) in its series TSE Working Papers with number 09-098.Length:
Date of creation: Oct 2009
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published in American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, vol. 2, n°2, mai 2010, p. 222-255.
Handle: RePEc:tse:wpaper:21922
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Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Doh-Shin Jeon & Jean-Charles Rochet, 2010. "The Pricing of Academic Journals: A Two-Sided Market Perspective," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 222-55, May.
- Jeon, Doh-Shin & Rochet, Jean-Charles, 2009. "The Pricing of Academic Journals: A Two-Sided Market Perspective," IDEI Working Papers 458, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
- Doh-Shin Jeon & Jean-Charles Rochet, 2007. "The pricing of academic journals: A two-sided market perspective," Economics Working Papers 1025, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Apr 2009.
- Jeon, Doh-Shin & Rochet, Jean-Charles, 2010. "The Pricing of Academic Journals: A Two-Sided Market Perspective," Open Access publications from University of Toulouse 1 Capitole http://neeo.univ-tlse1.fr, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole.
- D42 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure and Pricing - - - Monopoly
- L42 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Vertical Restraints; Resale Price Maintenance; Quantity Discounts
- L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2010-05-22 (All new papers)
- NEP-COM-2010-05-22 (Industrial Competition)
- NEP-IPR-2010-05-22 (Intellectual Property Rights)
- NEP-NET-2010-05-22 (Network Economics)
- NEP-SOG-2010-05-22 (Sociology of Economics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Mueller-Langer, F. & Watt, R., 2012.
"Optimal pricing and quality of academic journals and the ambiguous welfare effects of forced open access: A two-sided model,"
Discussion Paper
2012-019, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
- Mueller-Langer, Frank & Watt, Richard, 2012. "Optimal pricing and quality of academic journals and the ambiguous welfare effects of forced open access: a two-sided model," MPRA Paper 40191, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Mark Armstrong, 2010.
"Collection Sales: Good Or Bad For Journals?,"
Economic Inquiry,
Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(1), pages 163-176, 01.
- Armstrong, Mark, 2008. "Collection sales: good or bad for journals?," MPRA Paper 8619, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Andre Veiga & E. Glen Weyl, 2011. "Multidimensional Heterogeneity and Platform Design," Working Papers 11-33, NET Institute, revised Nov 2011.
- Dubois, P. & Hernandez Perez, A. & Ivaldi, M., 2006.
"Academic journals as two-sided platforms : empirical evidence from data on french libraries,"
Economics Working Paper Archive (Toulouse)
200606, French Institute for Agronomy Research (INRA), Economics Laboratory in Toulouse (ESR Toulouse).
- Dubois, Pierre & Hernandez-Perez, Adriana & Ivaldi, Marc, 2006. "Academic Journals as Two-Sided Platforms: Empirical Evidence from Data on French Libraries," CEPR Discussion Papers 5990, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Emmanuel Farhi & Josh Lerner & Jean Tirole, 2008.
"Fear of Rejection? Tiered Certification and Transparency,"
NBER Working Papers
14457, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Farhi, Emmanuel & Lerner, Josh & Tirole, Jean, 2008. "Fear of Rejection? Tiered Certification and Transparency," IDEI Working Papers 534, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised Sep 2012.
- Doh-Shin Jeon & Nikrooz Nasr Esfahani, 2012. "News Aggregators and Competition Among Newspapers in the Internet," Working Papers 12-20, NET Institute.
- Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo & Krichel, Thomas, 2010. "The creation of internet communities: A brief history of on-line distribution of working papers through NEP, 1998-2010," MPRA Paper 27085, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Bombana, Roberto & Marchese, Carla, 2012. "Designing Fees for Music Copyright Holders in Radio Services," POLIS Working Papers 166, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
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