HKS Authors

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Abstract

In this paper, we focus on recorded music gifts during the holiday season and estimate the reduction in deadweight loss due to the transition from physical CD gift-giving to digital music gift-giving with gift cards. Based on our survey data, we find that music CD gifts generate an average deadweight loss between 15% and 38% of the price. According to our estimates of gift music album sales which are based on U.S. data, the welfare gains from digitization, in terms of eliminated deadweight loss as a percentage of total spending on music albums, were between 5% and 13% during the week when digital sales peak in 2014.

Citation

Bourreau, Marc, and Pinar Dogan. "Gains from Digitization: Evidence from Gift-Giving in Music." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 149 (May 2018; Online March 2018): 106-122.