Copyright and Creativity. Evidence from Italian Opera During the Napoleonic Age

2020/03/01 by Michela Giorcelli, Petra Moser · 4 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Art #Art History and Market Analysis #Creativity #Economics #Law #Literature #Opera #Political science

paper · pdf · doi:10.3386/w26885

published in National Bureau of Economic Research

openalex publication_date 2020/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

This paper exploits exogenous variation in the adoption of copyrights -as a result of the timing of Napolon's military victories in Italy -to examine the effects of copyrights on creativity. To measure changes in creative output we compare changes in the creation of new operas across states with and without copyrights. Difference-in-differences analyses show that basic copyrights increased both the number and the quality of operas, measured by their popularity and durability. Notably, there is no evidence of comparable benefits for extensions in copyright lengths. Complementary analyses for other types of musical compositions confirm the main results.

Citations

• Copyright Protection, Technological Change, and the Quality of New Products: Evidence from Recorded Music since Napster
• Inference with “Difference in Differences” with a Small Number of Policy Changes

Cited by

• Copyright [wikipedia]

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