Income, Cultural Norms and Purchases of Counterfeits

We conjecture that individual purchases of counterfeit products could be motivated by income and prices, but that another driver is cultural norms. To put the latter conjecture to an empirical test we make use of the unique situation of Surinamese people who live in Suriname and in the Netherlands and who might share the same norms and values but certainly not their respective income levels. Holding newly collected data from surveys amongst Surinamese individuals in the Netherlands and in Suriname against a control group of Dutch individuals in the Netherlands, we present evidence that cultural norms are indeed a key driver for purchases of counterfeit products. Implications for policy are discussed.