A general equilibrium analysis of software development: Implications of copyright protection and contract enforcement.
We develop a general equilibrium model to study the implications of a legal environment on the organization of software production. We show that contract enforcement determines the organizational mode (i.e., in-house versus outsourcing) of customized software development while copyright protection a...
| Published in: | European Economic Review Vol. 50; no. 7; pp. 1661 - 1683 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier Science
October 2006
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| Summary: | We develop a general equilibrium model to study the implications of a legal environment on the organization of software production. We show that contract enforcement determines the organizational mode (i.e., in-house versus outsourcing) of customized software development while copyright protection affects both packaged software as well as customized software development. We obtain some testable results: when copyright protection is weak, only customized software will be developed; when copyright protection is strong, both customized software and packaged software will be developed; environment changes in one software market affect the equilibrium in the other software market. Copyright (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. |
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