Related Web Links – Module 49 - Consumer and Producer Surplus
As most students (and many of their instructors) know well, they potentially receive significant amounts of consumer surplus by downloading music off the Internet for free. With great controversy, the music industry responded to the growing popularity of file sharing with lawsuits and effectively shutting down Napster–the company that pioneered the technology of file sharing. The argument made by the music industry was that file sharing was causing a major reduction in revenues. However, a recent study has found that file sharing has had no significant effect on sales and revenues for the music.
Go to: http://www.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/knowledge_goods/stumpf.pdf
Purchasing a used textbook may generate consumer surplus when the buyer is willing to pay the price for a new book. There are many Web options to purchase used textbooks including Amazon.
Go to: http://www.amazon.com/
Corn is a major input in Ethanol production in the
Go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/opinion/10cohen.html