Journal Article
No. 2017-13 |
May 18, 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)
(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.