掃興成本、人潮效果、擁擠效果與社會福利之研究：以線上音樂產業為例

A Study of Displeasing Cost, Network Effect, Crowding Effect, and Social Welfare: The Case of On-Line Music Industry

本文探討唱片公司對虛擬版商品採取不同價格策略（免費或收費）時，對唱片公司利潤、消費者剩餘和整體社會福利的影響效果。基於，營利機構乃以追求利潤極大化為目標，故我們發現唱片公司對實體版和虛擬版均採取收費制度，將可賺取更高獲利空間，但會降低整體消費者剩餘。又消費者剩餘降低幅度大於唱片公司利潤增加幅度，因而造成整體社會福利降低，故兩商品均收費的定價策略並不具有經濟效率。

This paper studies the effects of a record company adopting the different pricing strategies to virtual music goods on the company's profit, consumer's surplus and social welfare. We show that (1) after a record company charging for virtual music goods, a part of users of virtual music goods is unwilling to pay the goods; this does not influence the users who use the entity music goods, as a result the consumer's surplus falls. Because the effect of decreasing the consumer's surplus is greater than that of the increasing profit of the company, social welfare decreases. Therefore, the charging strategy is economic inefficiency. (2) the company charging for virtual music goods is profitable; unfortunately, this pricing strategy deteriorates to social welfare.