Abstract This paper develops a theoretical framework to discuss the positive role of imitative works where creators often have private information about their creative abilities and may need outside investment. Within this framework, we consider the impact of three types of copyright protection...

This article is based on the hypothesis that there exists far less conflict between competition/antitrust policy and intellectual property rights (IPRs) than there is made out to be. Historically, judges have imagined far greater conflicts between antitrust policy and intellectual property...

Abstract Global music sales have substantially fallen in the last four years. This paper uses a panel of country-level data to investigate the extent to which this is a consequence of file sharing. I find that countries with higher internet and broadband penetration have suffered higher drops in...

Abstract This paper evaluates the welfare consequences of implementing intellectual property rights in developing countries. The protection of intellectual property in poor countries promises to increase world innovation, but this would not come without costs. Higher prices for consumers in that...