Harry Clarke

My guess that the Government would buckle under local interest group pressure to reject the parallel import of books has proven correct. Mark at LP is pleased to learn that the moves to allow free trade in books suggested by the Productivity Commission have been stopped by the Rudd Government. In fact he asks why have a Productivity [...]

I bought a Kindle for $279US from Amazon.com.   The complete (out-of-copyright) works of Charles Dickens (51 volumes) are available for $3US; Paul Krugman’s The Return of Depression Economics is $9-22US.  If it turns out to be a feasible technology – in other words if I use it to read* – it will change my hefty [...]

The Federal Government might now back down on the Productivity Commission proposal to allow parallel imports of Australian produced books.  Relying on price discrimination on the basis of less elastic local demands these books are sold at a premium to the prices charged overseas for the same books. Allowing the books to be imported would therefore force [...]

I am surprised at the cost of non-specialised undergraduate textbooks these days. First because, as a parent of a university student, I get presented with what seem to be huge bills each semester and second because I as a first-year instructor I set hundreds of students each year texts that seem to always cost [...]