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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
While much has been written about the consequences of the digitization of entertainment media
(music, movies, etc.) and the best strategies to cope with copyright infringement, there is still little
research on the effect of the digitization of books. This raises the question of how the publishing
industry can learn from the experience of the entertainment industry. As tablets and e-readers become
more prevalent, increasing the attractiveness of digital copies of textbooks and other materials, the
issue of copying will become increasingly salient for academic texts. Demand for academic books
differs from that of experience goods such as music, movies, or the wider range of books since the
primary consumers, students, see textbooks not as cultural items but as a learning tool.
This thesis investigates the key factors in students’ decision to acquire textbooks using panel data
from a survey of students at Católica-Lisbon School of Business Economics. We model the decision
to buy a textbook first using multinomial logit models in which the students’ choice depends not
only on the price and quality of the book but also their valuation of a textbook as a study tool. We
then attempt to measure each student’s tendency to pirate and incorporate that estimate into the
multinomial model. The decision to pirate or not a given book seems to be based primarily on the
perceived usefulness of the book, more strongly than price.