Working Paper: NBER ID: w19521
Authors: Megan MacGarvie; Petra Moser
Abstract: Proponents of stronger copyright terms have argued that stronger copyright terms encourage creativity by increasing the profitability of authorship. Empirical evidence, however, is scarce, because data on the profitability of authorship is typically not available to the public. Moreover at current copyright lengths of 70 years after the author's death, further extensions may not have any effects on the profitability of authorship. To investigate effects of copyright at lower pre-existing levels of protection, this chapter introduces a new data set of publishers' payments to authors of British fiction between 1800 and 1830. These data indicate that payments to authors nearly doubled following an increase in the length of copyright in 1814. These findings suggest that - starting from low pre-existing levels of protection - policies that strengthen copyright terms may, in fact, increase the profitability of authorship.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: K11; N83; O31; O34
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increased copyright terms (O34) | payments to authors (J33) |
| copyright extension (O34) | author profitability (A14) |
| copyright extension (O34) | payments to authors (J33) |
| copyright reforms (O34) | upward trend in author compensation (M52) |