Journal Article
No. 2017-13 | May 18, 2017
Stan J. Liebowitz
A replication of four quasi-experiments and three facts from ‘The effect of file sharing on record sales: an empirical analysis’ (Journal of Political Economy, 2007)
(Published in Replication Study)

Abstract

The influential piracy paper by Professors Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf, although mainly based on proprietary data, contained an “important complement” to the main results, consisting of four “quasi-experiments” using publicly available data. This replication examines all of these quasi-experiments by using identical data and statistical methods where possible, as well as sometimes extending or augmenting the data or methods. This study concludes that the quasi-experiments performed by OS each contain important errors, oversights or inconsistencies that most often, but not completely, overturn the results claimed in the original OS article.

Data Set

JEL Classification:

Z1, O3, L8

Links

Cite As

Stan J. Liebowitz (2017). A replication of four quasi-experiments and three facts from ‘The effect of file sharing on record sales: an empirical analysis’ (Journal of Political Economy, 2007). Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, 11 (2017-13): 1–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2017-13