Pirated Economics

Babutsidze, Zakaria (2016): Pirated Economics.

Abstract

I argue that the impact of piracy engines for scholarly content on science depends on the nature of the research. Social sciences are more likely to reap benefits from such engines without inflicting much damage to journal publisher revenues. To validate the claim, I examine the data from illegal downloads of economics content from Sci-Hub over five-month period. I conclude that: (a) the extent of piracy in economics is not pervasive; (b) as downloads are coming mostly from under-developed countries; (c) users pirate even the content freely available online. As a result, publishers are not losing much revenues, while the exposure to generated knowledge is being extended.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Open science, Sci-Hub, Piracy, Economics
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics

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