Commercial publishers charge libraries about 6 times as much per page and 16 times as much per citation as nonprofit journals. The paper presents evidence that successful for profit journals are priced at several times average cost. They are able to earn "monopoly profits" despite free entry into the industry because journal reputation is the result of a kind of coordination game. The paper advocates withholding free referee services from overpriced journals.
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Commercial publishers charge libraries about 6 times as much per page and 16 times as much per citation as nonprofit journals. The paper presents evidence that successful for profit journals are priced at several times average cost. They are able to earn \"monopoly profits\" despite free entry into the industry because journal reputation is the result of a kind of coordination game. The paper advocates withholding free referee services from overpriced journals.","keywords":["economics journals","information goods","pricing of academic journals","non-profit organizations","monopoly","coordination game","libraries"],"addl_info":"This paper appeared in the Journal of Economic Perspectives in Summer 2001.","thumbnail":{"width":121,"height":204,"asset_id":"d93b63231e4af3e21d6a724cc5554d0192a1c3d8cd49b660429fa37c5782385e","timestamp":1255780764,"image_type":"png"},"bepress_id":"5673","pub_status":"internalPub","content_length":136926,"is_peer_reviewed":true},"authors":[{"name":"Bergstrom, Ted","email":"[email protected]","fname":"Ted","lname":"Bergstrom","institution":"University of California, Santa Barbara"}],"citation":{"id":"qt1wf0r099","type":"article","title":"Free Labor for Costly 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