What Is the True Loss Due to Piracy? Evidence from Microsoft Office in Hong Kong

Tin Cheuk Leung ()

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2013, vol. 95, issue 3, 1018-1029

Abstract: Using a unique conjoint data set drawn from 281 college students in Hong Kong, I estimate a random-coefficient discrete choice demand system for Microsoft Office from legal and various illegal sources. Counterfactual results show two things. First, most students would switch to Internet piracy even if the government eradicated street piracy. This explains why software piracy in Hong Kong remains well above 40% despite the government's successful measures to bring down street piracy. Second, the true gain from shutting off all sources of piracy is HK$48.6 (US$6) per person, only 15% of the Business Software Alliance's estimated cost of piracy. © 2013 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Keywords: Business Software Alliance; intellectual property enforcement; Microsoft Office; software piracy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K42 L86 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Working Paper: What is the True Loss Due to Piracy?: Evidence from Microsoft Office in Hong Kong (2011)
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