IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/ordojb/v55y2004i1p235-268n14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Die Neuregelung der Buchpreisbindung in Deutschland – Eine wettbewerbspolitische Analyse

Author

Listed:
  • Knorr Andreas
  • Schulz Christina

Abstract

After years of political controversy, the German government passed an act to regulate resale price maintenance for books in 2002. Effectively, it bans all form of price competition at the retail level. According to its proponents - essentially the majority of the country’s publishers, booksellers, authors as well as their respective trade associations and guilds - resale price maintenance for books is a conditio sine qua non for the promotion of culturally valuable, yet unprofitable „quality literature“. What is more, it is deemed necessary to maintain a countrywide network of well-stocked bookstores. Both arguments, however, are unconvincing from an economic point of view, as is demonstrated in this paper. In particular, this is due to its fundamentally flawed institutional design which completely neglects the demand side and is ridden with counterproductive incentives on the supply side.

Suggested Citation

  • Knorr Andreas & Schulz Christina, 2004. "Die Neuregelung der Buchpreisbindung in Deutschland – Eine wettbewerbspolitische Analyse," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 55(1), pages 235-268, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:ordojb:v:55:y:2004:i:1:p:235-268:n:14
    DOI: 10.1515/ordo-2004-0114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ordo-2004-0114
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ordo-2004-0114?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benny Moldovanu & Manfred Tietzel, 1998. "Goethe's Second-Price Auction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(4), pages 854-859, August.
    2. Frank Mathewson & Ralph Winter, 1998. "The Law and Economics of Resale Price Maintenance," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 13(1), pages 57-84, April.
    3. William S. Comanor & John B. Kirkwood, 1985. "Resale Price Maintenance And Antitrust Policy," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 3(3), pages 9-16, March.
    4. Behrens, Karl Christian & Becker, Wolf-Dieter, 1953. "Die Problematik horizontaler und vertikaler Preisbindungen," Wirtschaftsdienst – Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik (1949 - 2007), ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 33(8), pages 498-503.
    5. Elsenbast, Wolfgang, 2000. "Die Buchpreisbindung aus ökonomischer Sicht," Wirtschaftsdienst – Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik (1949 - 2007), ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 80(9), pages 558-564.
    6. Michael Utton, 2000. "Books Are Not Different After All: Observations on the Formal Ending of the Net Book Agreement in the UK," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 115-126.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alexandra Kontolaimou & Pródromos-Ioánnis Prodromídis & Ioanna Konstantakopoulou, 2019. "The issue of fixed book pricing: Evidence based on the Greek experience," Cyprus Economic Policy Review, University of Cyprus, Economics Research Centre, vol. 13(2), pages 102-120, December.
    2. Christos Genakos & Mario Pagliero & Lorien Sabatino & Tommaso Valletti, 2025. "Cultural exception? The impact of price regulation on prices and variety in the market for books," CEP Discussion Papers dp2085, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Ippolito, Pauline M & Overstreet, Thomas R, Jr, 1996. "Resale Price Maintenance: An Economic Assessment of the Federal Trade Commission's Case against the Corning Glass Works," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(1), pages 285-328, April.
    4. Stefan Buehler & Dennis L. Gärtner, 2013. "Making Sense of Nonbinding Retail-Price Recommendations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(1), pages 335-359, February.
    5. repec:rnp:ecopol:ep1440 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Clemens Puppe & Stephanie Rosenkranz, 2011. "Why Suggest Non‐Binding Retail Prices?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 78(310), pages 317-329, April.
    7. Joshua D. Wright, 2010. "The Chicago School, Transaction Cost Economics, and Antitrust," Chapters, in: Peter G. Klein & Michael E. Sykuta (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Transaction Cost Economics, chapter 23, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Ran Canetti & Amos Fiat & Yannai A. Gonczarowski, 2023. "Zero-Knowledge Mechanisms," Papers 2302.05590, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2025.
    9. Øystein Foros & Hans Jarle Kind & Jan Yngve Sand, 2009. "Slotting Allowances and Manufacturers' Retail Sales Effort," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 76(1), pages 266-282, July.
    10. Rosenkranz, Stephanie, 2003. "The Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price," CEPR Discussion Papers 3954, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Yvan Lengwiler & Elmar G. Wolfstetter, 2005. "Bid Rigging – An Analysis of Corruption in Auctions," CESifo Working Paper Series 1488, CESifo.
    12. Beck, Jonathan, 2008. "Diderot´s rule," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Competition and Innovation SP II 2008-13, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    13. Oystein Foros & Frode Steen, 2008. "Gasoline Prices Jump Up on Mondays: an Outcome of Aggressive Competition?," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2008-20, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    14. Thomas R. Overstreet Jr. & Alan A. Fisher, 1985. "Resale Price Maintenance And Distributional Efficiency: Some Lessons From The Past," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 3(3), pages 43-58, March.
    15. Haucap, Justus & Klein, Gordon J., 2012. "Einschränkungen der Preisgestaltung im Einzelhandel aus wettbewerbsökonomischer Perspektive," DICE Ordnungspolitische Perspektiven 22, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    16. Frederick van der Ploeg, 2004. "Beyond the Dogma of the Fixed Book Price Agreement," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 28(1), pages 1-20, February.
    17. Inderst, Roman & Pfeil, Sebastian, 2014. "An "Image Theory" of RPM," MPRA Paper 54139, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Canoy, Marcel & van Ours, Jan C. & van der Ploeg, Frederick, 2006. "The Economics of Books," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 21, pages 721-761, Elsevier.
    19. Ralph A. Winter, 2009. "Presidential Address: Antitrust restrictions on single-firm strategies," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 42(4), pages 1207-1239, November.
    20. W. Stanbury, 1998. "Expanding Responsibilities and Declining Resources: The Strategic Responses of the Competition Bureau, 1986–1996," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 13(1), pages 205-241, April.
    21. Giovannetti, Emanuele & Sigloch, Sebastian, 2015. "An Internet periphery study: Network centrality and clustering for mobile access in Bhutan," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 608-622.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:ordojb:v:55:y:2004:i:1:p:235-268:n:14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyterbrill.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.