File sharing: zero effect on downloads

Discuss the world of file sharing, from philosophy to help with applications.

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p2p-sharing-rules
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Journal of Political Economy abstract for the new paper:

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.

Go here for a .pdf download of the first paper, and we'll be running the latest version in full tomorrow.
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p2pnet didn't run the latest report called The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis by Felix Oberholzer-Gee & Koleman Strumpf.
I went looking for it tonight , if you want to read it you can read it here or the .pdf version here.
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