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To Pay or Not to Pay? Determinants of Unlawful Product Acquisition

2016-01-cover

1452116723_Newspaper

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CREATe Working Paper 2016/01

Piers Fleming, Melanie Parravano and Daniel John Zizzo (2016)

Abstract

We present a laboratory experiment that systematically investigates the determinants of acquisition behavior with a negative externality on a rights holder. We consider social and moral determinants of unlawful behavior as well as standard penalty and punishment risk trade-offs. We find that, while punishment risk and penalty size reduce unlawful behavior, they are not the only determinants that do. Moral determinants matter: there being a victim, and the victim deserving to be the rights holder, makes a difference. Social norms also matter: controlling for other variables, one point more of social appropriateness increase unlawful behavior by around 30-40%.

Keywords: crime, unlawful file sharing, punishment, deservingness, social norms.

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