Cultural Economics and IP

Abstract: 
The role of economics in shaping IP policy has increased over the last decades as the digital era has provoked government, industry and consumer responses to copyright policy. Yet economics’ contribution to these arguments remains controversial. This talk will detail three schools of thought in economic analysis of IP: innovation economics, Law & Economics and cultural economics.  With an emphasis on cultural economics, the talk investigates the interplay between these approaches, and the potential cultural economics has to provide insights into the role of copyright in the creative and cultural industries. It places tensions between approaches in the wider context of academic and policy debates.

Bio:
Dr. Nicola Searle is an economist who specialises in the economics of intellectual property and the creative industries. She is a Lecturer at the Institute for Cultural & Creative Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr. Searle’s prior roles include Economic Advisor at the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), researcher in new models for digital media with the Universities of Edinburgh and Abertay, and an AHRC/ESRC placement fellow at the IPO. Before her academic career, she was an associate at Goldman Sachs. Dr. Searle is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Capitalising on Creativity (ICC) at the School of Management, University of St Andrews. She blogs for the IPKat under the moniker the Katonomist.  

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Each year the OIPRC hosts a number of leading academics from around the world as part of its Invited Speaker Series. These events typically run from 5:15-6:45pm on Thursday evenings at St. Peter’s College; if the venue or time is different, it will be noted on the Events calendar.  The Speaker Series consists of a presentation of about 45 minutes, followed by a Q&A session with the assembled group of academic staff, students (both undergraduate and graduate), researchers, and interested members of the public.  Discussion is informal and includes participants from several disciplines, with a wide range of prior knowledge.