How Bad Is Music File Sharing? – Part 13

Rob/Waldfogel’s article in the Journal of Law and Economics is based on a 2004 working paper entitled “Piracy on the High C’s. Music Downloading, Sales Displacement, and Social Welfare in a Sample of College Students”.  The authors used a survey-based dataset of music downloading and purchases of 8,200 albums by 412 college students. The repondents were asked whether they download more and buy fewer albums. The authors document “(…) that downloading reduces music purchases, by roughly one fifth of a sale for each recent download and possibly much more” (Rob and Waldfogel 2004: 29). The conservative estimates indicate that “(…) downloading reduced purchases by individuals in the sample by about 10 percent during 2003”. (Rob and Waldfogel 2004: 29)