The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis
The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis
复制标题
文件共享对唱片销售的影响：实证分析
DOI：
10.1086/511995
复制
发表时间：
2007
影响因子：
8.2
通讯作者：
Koleman Strumpf
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Felix Oberholzer;Koleman Strumpf
对于从软件到制药和娱乐的行业，人们对知识产权的适当保护水平进行了激烈的辩论。互联网为评估减少保护的影响提供了一个天然的熔炉，因为它大大降低了复制信息的成本。在本文中，我们分析文件共享是否减少了音乐的法律的销售。虽然这个问题在学术界、工业界和国会都受到了相当大的关注，但我们是第一个使用音乐文件实际下载数据来研究这一现象的人。我们将大量下载样本与大量专辑的美国销售数据进行了匹配。为了建立因果关系，我们使用国际学校假期的数据进行下载。下载量对销售额的影响在统计学上几乎等于零。我们的估计与文件共享是我们研究期间音乐销售下降的主要原因的说法不一致。
For industries ranging from software to pharmaceuticals and entertainment, there is an intense debate about the appropriate level of protection for intellectual property. The Internet provides a natural crucible to assess the implications of reduced protection because it drastically lowers the cost of copying information. In this paper, we analyze whether file sharing has reduced the legal sales of music. While this question is receiving considerable attention in academia, industry, and Congress, we are the first to study the phenomenon employing data on actual downloads of music files. We match an extensive sample of downloads to U.S. sales data for a large number of albums. To establish causality, we instrument for downloads using data on international school holidays. Downloads have an effect on sales that is statistically indistinguishable from zero. Our estimates are inconsistent with claims that file sharing is the primary reason for the decline in music sales during our study period.