On the cultural blessings of fixed book prices
2004; Routledge; Volume: 10; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/1028663042000312570
ISSN1477-2833
Autores Tópico(s)Digital Platforms and Economics
ResumoAbstract The system of fixed book prices whereby publishers set the price customers pay at the bookstore is very common in Europe and, according to the European Parliament, it is a means of unique cultural importance. For this reason, it is considered to more than outweigh any negative effects on the economic efficiency of such regulations. The main conclusion of this article, however, is that it is quite hard to find convincing evidence, either theoretical or empirical, that fixed book pricing is better, even as a cultural means, than free book pricing. Keywords: book economicscultural economicsfixed book pricecultural policy Acknowledgements This article is based on Chapter 6 of a study financed by the Norwegian Council for Cultural Affairs (). I am indebted to Professor Francis Fishwick and two unknown referees for several comments and suggestions for improvement of a preliminary draft of this article. Notes For a historical review, see Bittlingmayer (1988) In 1962, 44% of total consumer expenditure in the United Kingdom was on goods with RPM. A decade later, this share was reduced to 2% (, p. 124). Thus there is no formally permitted RPM in the United Kingdom today, but according to Francis Fishwick there is some RPM de facto. Except for Finland (cf. ), little information about the book markets of the Nordic countries is available in English. Those who read German could benefit from the more comprehensive theoretical discussion in Rürup (). Econometric analyses by Bittlingmayer (), Hjorth‐Andersen () and Ringstad and Løyland () suggest that the demand for books is quite price elastic. Calculations presented in Fishwick and Fitzsimons (), as well as studies referred to there, suggest that books are price‐inelastic or price‐neutral. The effects of fixed prices on the size and number of outlets are discussed at some length in Gould and Preston (). Telser () was the first one to use this argument for fixed prices (cf. also ; ; ). This issue is discussed by several of the other authors referred to previously. According to , p. 591), the only exceptions are the roughly 5% of new titles produced by publishers who market their books directly to end‐customers and older titles that are removed from RPM and sold to special discounter wholesalers. In Denmark, it is 25% as well, while it is 8% in Finland. This comparison is based on consumer price data for books calculated by the various national bureaus of statistics. (These data are not generally available and were provided at the author's request.) Vidar Ringstad, Telemark Research Institute, 3800 Bø, Norway. E‐mail: vringsta@tmforskbo.no.
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