IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/19521.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Copyright and the Profitability of Authorship: Evidence from Payments to Writers in the Romantic Period

Author

Listed:
  • Megan MacGarvie
  • Petra Moser

Abstract

Proponents of stronger copyright terms have argued that stronger copyright terms encourage creativity by increasing the profitability of authorship. Empirical evidence, however, is scarce, because data on the profitability of authorship is typically not available to the public. Moreover at current copyright lengths of 70 years after the author's death, further extensions may not have any effects on the profitability of authorship. To investigate effects of copyright at lower pre-existing levels of protection, this chapter introduces a new data set of publishers' payments to authors of British fiction between 1800 and 1830. These data indicate that payments to authors nearly doubled following an increase in the length of copyright in 1814. These findings suggest that - starting from low pre-existing levels of protection - policies that strengthen copyright terms may, in fact, increase the profitability of authorship.

Suggested Citation

  • Megan MacGarvie & Petra Moser, 2013. "Copyright and the Profitability of Authorship: Evidence from Payments to Writers in the Romantic Period," NBER Working Papers 19521, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19521
    Note: PR DAE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w19521.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stan J. Liebowitz & Stephen E. Margolis, 2005. "Seventeen Famous Economists Weigh In On Copyright: The Role Of Theory, Empirics, And Network Effects," Law and Economics 0505003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Scherer, F. M., 2008. "The Emergence of Musical Copyright in Europe," Working Paper Series rwp08-052, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xing Li & Megan MacGarvie & Petra Moser, 2014. "Dead Poets’ Property - How Does Copyright Influence Price," Discussion Papers 14-001, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    2. Julia Cage & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2017. "The Production of Information in an Online World: Is Copy Right?," Working Papers hal-03393171, HAL.
    3. Bradley, Wendy A. & Kolev, Julian, 2023. "How does digital piracy affect innovation? Evidence from software firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(3).
    4. Stan J. Liebowitz, 2016. "Paradise Lost or Fantasy Island? Voluntary Payments by American Publishers to Authors Not Protected by Copyright," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 549-567.
    5. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Milan Miric & Lars Bo Jeppesen, 2020. "Does piracy lead to product abandonment or stimulate new product development?: Evidence from mobile platform‐based developer firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(12), pages 2155-2184, December.
    7. Barbara Biasi & Petra Moser, 2018. "Effects of Copyrights on Science - Evidence from the US Book Republication Program," Working Papers 18-06, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1ikqf7qv0m8h7q6lmc4ng73ueq is not listed on IDEAS
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/38tbdqmgvf8f9amamb132hea9b is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Moser, Petra & Biasi, Barbara, 2018. "Effects of Copyrights on Science - Evidence from the US Book Republication Program," CEPR Discussion Papers 12651, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    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. Handke, Christian & Girard, Yann & Mattes, Anselm, 2015. "Fördert das Urheberrecht Innovation? Eine empirische Untersuchung," Studien zum deutschen Innovationssystem 16-2015, Expertenkommission Forschung und Innovation (EFI) - Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation, Berlin.
    2. Baker, Matthew J & Cunningham, Brendan M, 2006. "Court Decisions and Equity Markets: Estimating the Value of Copyright Protection," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(2), pages 567-596, October.
    3. Paul J. Heald, 2014. "The public domain," Chapters, in: Richard Watt (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Copyright, chapter 5, pages 93-104, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Nodir Adilov & Michael Waldman, 2013. "Optimal Copyright Length And Ex Post Investment: A Mickey Mouse Approach," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(2), pages 1101-1122, April.
    5. Stan J. Liebowitz & Richard Watt, 2006. "How To Best Ensure Remuneration For Creators In The Market For Music? Copyright And Its Alternatives," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 513-545, September.
    6. Olivier P. Bomsel, 2013. "Copyright And Brands In The Digital Age: Internalizing The Externalities Of Meaning," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(1), pages 126-134, January.
    7. Kim Jin-Hyuk, 2007. "Strategic Use of Copyright Protection to Deter Entry," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-19, September.
    8. Yasuhiro Arai & Shinya Kinukawa, 2014. "Copyright infringement as user innovation," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(2), pages 131-144, May.
    9. Ivan Png, 2006. "Copyright: A Plea for Empirical Research," Levine's Working Paper Archive 321307000000000484, David K. Levine.
    10. Sanz, Esteve, 2015. "Copyright indicators and the costs of symbolic production: The cultural dimension of telecommunications policy," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 208-217.
    11. Oliver Falck & Simon Wiederhold, 2013. "Demand-Oriented Innovation Policy: A Critical Review," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 51.
    12. Noemí Pulido Pavón & Luis Palma Martos & Luis F. Aguado, 2016. "Derechos de autor. Enfoque económico, evolución y perspectivas," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 18(35), pages 151-169, July-Dece.
    13. Markus Pasche, 2014. "Welfare Effects of Endogenous Copyright Enforcement - the Case of Digital Goods," Jena Economics Research Papers 2014-008, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    14. Handke, Christian, 2012. "Digital copying and the supply of sound recordings," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 15-29.
    15. Pollock, Rufus, 2007. "Forever Minus a Day? Some Theory and Empirics of Optimal Copyright," MPRA Paper 5024, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Aug 2007.
    16. Maxime Lambrecht, 2017. "The time limit on copyright: an unlikely tragedy of the intellectual commons," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 475-494, June.
    17. Pollock, Rufus, 2008. "Forever Minus a Day? Theory and Empirics of Optimal Copyright Term," MPRA Paper 8887, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 May 2008.
    18. Balluchi, Federica & Lazzini, Arianna & Torelli, Riccardo, 2021. "Accounting and music: The role of Giuseppe Verdi in shaping the 19th century culture industry," OSF Preprints 5hz87, Center for Open Science.
    19. Christian Handke, 2013. "Empirical evidence on copyright," Chapters, in: Ruth Towse & Christian Handke (ed.), Handbook on the Digital Creative Economy, chapter 22, pages 249-261, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Peter Lewin, 2007. "Creativity or Coercion: Alternative Perspectives on Rights to Intellectual Property," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 71(4), pages 441-455, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law
    • N83 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:19521. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.