The Economics of Books and Reading

This book gives an overview of the key issues related to books and reading within the field of cultural economics and identifies additional lacunae in this area of research. The field of cultural economics is surprisingly short on research on the book market and on the activity of reading compared with other more recently invented media such as films and musical recordings. In addition, books and reading are strongly impacted by the disruptive innovations of digital technology and the use of online distribution platforms that fuel much of the research on the more recently invented cultural media. This book shows that the area of books and reading has had contributions in historically established areas of cultural economics and those currently exciting attention - chiefly with respect to digital disruption. Finally, it explains how books and reading are a fully developed rational addition model rather than something just based on the addition of past behaviour.

Previously published in Journal of Cultural Economics Volume 43, issue 4, December 2019

Autorentext

Samuel Cameron, former Professor of Economics, University of Bradford, UK, is currently retired from teaching. He is the author of An Economic Approach to the Plagiarism of Music published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2020. He currently co-edits the Journal of Cultural Economics

Inhalt
Cultural economics, books and reading.- Economics and novels: good, evil and becoming better people.- The economics of the modern American comic book market.- Unraveling the effect of extrinsic reading on reading with intrinsic motivation.- Don't judge a book by its cover: examining digital disruption in the book industry using a stated preference approach.- More than a good book: contingent valuation of public library services in England.- List of Reviewers.