Comments and Questions

This paper uses panel data to study the differences in piracy rates across countries. The authors find that more developed countries have lower incentives for pirating. Unlike previous papers, piracy rate is positively correlated with the tax burden rate but negatively correlated with the domestic market size and exports over GDP. The authors separate the impacts of education and R&D on piracy, and find two effects with opposite signs. Results show that the spread of access to the Internet is negatively correlated with the software piracy rate. I think that the topic of the paper is interesting and worthwhile. However, the authors need to do a good round of revisions. The main issue with the paper is the lack of empirical robustness checks with alternate data/estimation. For instance, “hard” R&D data, albeit at a macro level is available from the World Bank and that should be used alternately to check the robustness. I would also try other macro variables. Further, usually education and R&D are not used together as explanatory variables, given the high overlap between the two. So the authors need to do alternate specifications. Regarding estimation, I would also suggest that the authors use perhaps GMM type estimation to check for robustness. Finally, the abstract needs to be made more pointed. “Corruption and Software Piracy: A Comparative Perspective”, Policy & Internet, 2011.