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This empirical research investigates subscription price variations of scholarly journals in five business subject-specific areas using the semilogarithmic regression model. It has two main purposes. The first is to address the unsettled debate over whether or not and to what extent commercial publishers reap monopoly profits by overcharging academic libraries for scholarly journals they subscribe to. The second is to provide librarians with scholarly journal price estimates and to test publication factors that affect journal prices. The subject-specific approach used in this study provides more accurate estimates for serial budgeting and management. The findings show that in all cases the coefficient of the commercial publisher variable is statistically significant at a very high level (p less than 0.0001). In most cases, the coefficients of other observed variables are also significant, and scholarly journal prices vary significantly among the business subject-specific areas. (Contains 11 tables.)

Examines the economic behavior of academic research libraries, arguing that academic research libraries seek to maximize universities' utility by expanding library collections. Findings are consistent with those from a previous study using a different ranking system and sample data and reconfirm that library collections contribute significantly to prestige of universities. (Author/AEF)

This empirical research examined scale economies of academic research libraries and developed a total cost function for estimating economies of scale. Suggests that libraries in general, and academic research libraries in particular, are information provision organizations that provide multiproducts and multiservices. Findings indicate that slight economies of scale exist in academic research libraries. (AEF)

This article examines the economic behavior of academic research libraries. It argues that academic research libraries seek to maximize universities utility by expanding library collections. The log-linear model that reflects the relationship between library collections and prestige of universities was formulated, tested, and proved to be the best fit of the data. The regression results show that about 40 percent of the variance of the dependent variable can be accounted for by library volume collections and 26 percent can be explained by library serials collections. The findings are consistent with those from a previous study using a different ranking system and sample data and reconfirm that indeed library collections contribute significantly to prestige of universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles on economics of libraries, information resources and information technology.