Copyright and endogenous market structure: a glimpse from the journal-publishing market
Abstract
This article explores the journal publishing industry in order to shed light on the overall economic consequences of copyright in markets. Since the rationale for copyright is among others to promise some market power to the holder of the successful copyrighted item, it also provides incentives to preserve and extend market power. A regular trait of copyright industries is high concentration and the creation of large catalogues of copyrights in the hands of incumbents. This outcome can be observed as the aggregation of rights and is one of the pivotal strategies for obtaining or extending market power, consistently with findings in other cases. Journal publishing is no different in this respect from other copyright industries, and in the last decade has experienced a similar trajectory, leading to a highly concentrated industry in which a handful of large firms increasingly control a substantial part of the market. It also provides a clear example of the effect of copyright dynamics on market structure, suggesting that a different attitude should be taken in lawmaking and law enforcement.Download Info
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Paper provided by Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS in its series POLIS Working Papers with number 146.Length: 20 pages
Date of creation: Sep 2010
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:uca:ucapdv:146
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://polis.unipmn.it
Related research
Keywords: copyright and market power; endogenous market structure; journal-publishing industry;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure and Pricing - - - General
- O34 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change; Research and Development; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property Rights
- O33 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change; Research and Development; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
- L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
- L69 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Other
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2010-09-25 (All new papers)
- NEP-COM-2010-09-25 (Industrial Competition)
- NEP-IND-2010-09-25 (Industrial Organization)
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Citations
Blog mentions
As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:- Copyright and the lack of competition in academic publishing
by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2010-10-20 14:20:00 - Copyright: Copyrights and expanding monopolies
by Christian Zimmermann in Against Monopoly on 2010-10-21 03:21:49
Cited by:
- Giovanni Ramello, 2011.
"Property rights and externalities: the uneasy case of knowledge,"
European Journal of Law and Economics,
Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 123-141, February.
- Ramello, Giovanni B., 2010. "Property rights and externalities: The uneasy case of knowledge," POLIS Working Papers 149, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
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