The+Economics+of+Plagiarism

** __WHY I CITE__

I have often wondered why such a big deal is made about plagiarism. On one hand, it seems to be the scholastic sin from which there is no return as many college and high school syllabi contain stern warnings of the consequences that will befall anyone who fails to use proper APA or MLA citation or punctuation. Teacher encourage students to rephrase things they read "in their own words."

On the other hand, I have done many google searches on specific topics only to find several sites willing to sell me prefabricated papers on all manner of topics. Cliff's Notes, Spark Notes, and Pink Monkey offer concise synopses, key quotations and themes and character summaries. I have experienced more than one tenured social studies teacher offer students retyped notes taken word for word, diagram for diagram from a popular regents review guide. It never ceases to amaze me how many literal movie remakes there are and how many more lift key elements form earlier works without attribution. Moreover, when a contemporary apes a Bogart or Bacall or an actor from the original makes a cameo it is seen as a homage and not a cheap knock off.

It seems to me that society is sending mixed messages about how we feel about plagiarism. On one hand there stiff penalties for relatively low stakes instances of plagiarism by students, while they are significant rewards in some high stakes cases. Economics may be able to sort out some of the differences.

The most common way to look at plagiarism is a violation of INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. Intellectual property is the exclusive right that artists and inventors have to the use of their ideas including books, songs, movies, and inventions. The original artist or inventor is entitled to profit from their work to produce creative material or at least set rules for how it should be used. If someone uses intellectual property without properly compensating the owner, this is the same as stealing. Plagiarism is the use of another author's words or ideas without proper attribution or credit. By not using correct citation, you are passing someone else's property as your own.

Another to look at plagiarism is through TRANSACTION COSTS. Transaction costs represent the friction that occurs during economic exchanges. For example, when you buy an apple at a store, the price is not just the intrinsic value of the apple, but all the other costs necessary to the apple from the orchard to you. Another example are maitre d's and servers at a restaurant. At one level, by bringing your order and showing you to your table, they add nothing to the value of the meal. In some restaurants -- McDonald's and school cafeterias, for instance -- customers seat themselves, pick up their order from the kitchen counter, and bus their own tables. . . so why do we pay people to do something that we could do for free? The answer most economists give is transaction costs. **