Open Access as a Crude Solution to a Hold-up Problem in the Two-Sided Market for Academic Journals

We thank Mark Armstrong, Sumit Joshi, Simon Loertscher, David Malueg, Lars Stole, and seminar participants at American University, Dartmouth College, George Washington University, MIT, New York University, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Santa Clara University, Tulane University, the University of Chicago, the University of Goettingen, Yale University, the Cologne Summit on Open Access Publishing, the Emory University Symposium on Open Access and Digital Preservation, the International Industrial Organization Conference (Chicago), and the NBER Workshop on Scholarly Communication, Open Science, and Its Impact (Cambridge, MA) for helpful comments. This paper grew out of an earlier project, "The Economics of Open-Access Journals," conducted under grants from the Open Society Institute, NET Institute, and Stigler Center for Study of Economy and State at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Funding for work on this paper was provided by the Sloan Foundation, grant #G-2012-10-20, which the authors gratefully acknowledge. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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