The Impact of Software Piracy on Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Africa

Simplice Asongu and Antonio Andres

No 14/035, Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. from African Governance and Development Institute.

Abstract: This paper examines two dimensions of the software piracy-development nexus to complement existing formal literature. It empirically assesses the incidence of piracy on the Human Development Index (HDI) and its constituents and then the instrumentality of Intellectual Property Right (IPR) treaties (laws) in the linkages. An instrumental variable or Two-stage least squares is applied on panel of 11 African countries with data for the period 2000-2010. Three main findings are established: (1) software piracy has a negative incidence on inequality adjusted human development; (2) the unappealing effect of piracy on the HDI is fuelled by per capita economic prosperity and life expectancy components of human emancipation; (3) software piracy increases literacy. Two major policy implications have been retained from the findings. Firstly, adherence to international IPRs protection treaties (laws) may not impede per capita economic prosperity and could improve life-expectancy. Secondly, adoption of tight IPRs regimes may negatively affect human development by diminishing the literacy rate and restricting diffusion of knowledge.

Keywords: Software piracy; Human development; Intellectual property rights; Panel data, Instrumental variables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K42 O34 O38 O47 O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30
Date: 2014-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-ipr, nep-pr~, nep-iue and nep-law
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/Softwa ... uman-Development.pdf Revised version, 2014 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of software piracy on inclusive human development: evidence from Africa (2017)
Working Paper: The Impact of Software Piracy on Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Africa (2015)
Working Paper: The Impact of Software Piracy on Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Africa (2015)
Working Paper: The Impact of Software Piracy on Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Africa (2015)
Working Paper: The Impact of Software Piracy on Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Africa (2014)
Working Paper: The Impact of Software Piracy on Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Africa (2014)
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