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Infringing Use, Search Costs, and Legal Consumption: Evidence from a Field Experiment
Last registered on August 21, 2018
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information
General Information
Title
Infringing Use, Search Costs, and Legal Consumption: Evidence from a Field Experiment
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003238
Initial registration date
August 20, 2018
Last updated
August 21, 2018 12:35 AM EDT
Location(s)
Country
United States of America
Region
Primary Investigator
Name
Hong Luo
Affiliation
Harvard Business School
Contact Primary Investigator
Other Primary Investigator(s)
PI Name
Julie Mortimer
PI Affiliation
Boston College and NBER
Contact Investigator
Additional Trial Information
Status
Completed
Start date
2017-11-15
End date
2017-12-22
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
Search costs, information provision, demand discovery, copyright infringement, piracy
JEL code(s)
O34, C93, D83, L15 
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Motivated by the observation that infringing use of content reveals demand and that infringement may result from frictions preventing legal consumption, we contact infringers of expensive digital images and direct them toward a cheaper product. Two interventions are designed to
reduce search costs for (i) price and (ii) product information.
External Link(s)
Registration Citation
Citation
Luo, Hong and Julie Mortimer. 2018. "Infringing Use, Search Costs, and Legal Consumption: Evidence from a Field Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. August 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3238-1.0
Former Citation
Luo, Hong and Julie Mortimer. 2018. "Infringing Use, Search Costs, and Legal Consumption: Evidence from a Field Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. August 21. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3238/history/33311
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details
Interventions
Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2017-11-15
Intervention End Date
2017-12-04
Primary Outcomes
Primary Outcomes (end points)
Licensing outcomes of digital images, including whether or not a license is purchased and, if so, revenue generated.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Secondary Outcomes
Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Experimental Design
Experimental Design
There are six groups in total: two control groups and four treatment groups. Emails to the two control groups offer only the option of licensing the infringed premium image currently displayed on the firm's (commercial) website. Emails to all the treatment groups add a cheaper micro-stock licensing option, in addition to the premium option. Two interventions are designed to provide the (i) price and (ii) product information.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Done by a random number generator in Stata
Randomization Unit
Firm
Was the treatment clustered?
No
Experiment Characteristics
Sample size: planned number of clusters
24680 infringing firms
Sample size: planned number of observations
24680 infringing firms
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
2904 (control group, without premium-image price information); 2912 (control group, with premium-image price information); 2906 (treatment group, without premium-image price information and without image recommendations); 6522 (treatment group, without premium-image price information but with image recommendations); 2912 (treatment group, with premium-image price information but without image recommendations); 6524 (treatment group, with premium-image price information and with image recommendations)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB
INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARDS (IRBs)
IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan
Post-Trial
Post Trial Information
Study Withdrawal
Intervention
Is the intervention completed?
No
Is data collection complete?
Data Publication
Data Publication
Is public data available?
No
Program Files
Program Files
Reports and Papers
Preliminary Reports
Relevant Papers