Creative output in a market context

The main contributions of this thesis to existing literature is the introduction of a new methodology for researching the effect of copyright law on creative output using dynamic markets created in a lab experiment. The markets of interest are creative industries, examples of these markets are markets such as, book and music publishing, where copyright is an important part of how the markets operate. Motivating creative production in such industries is more complex compared to motivating production in industries with more mechanic or algorithmic tasks. The methodology presented in the thesis is a contribution to existing literature on copyright and motivation, as previous literature does not utilise a dynamic experimental environment. The results of this research indicate that both pay structure and the availability of information regarding the actions and performance of other competitors can influence creativity. There is some evidence that public information/attribution was important to market participants, as it in some cases provides an incentive for higher production and in other cases it cancels out an effect which are otherwise found when only tournament pay/economic rights were present. There is evidence of lower satisfaction in tournament pay/economic rights groups which suggest that individuals exert overconfidence before participating in the market causing lower satisfaction due to below expected performance. This might also result in over supply in winner-takes-all markets as participants overestimate the probability of their own success when entering the market. Besides this, the lower satisfaction could increase turnover in the creative industries and thus decrease overall human capital in the market as the unsuccessful experienced individuals leave the market due to low satisfaction