Why are Textbooks Expensive?

Professors often assign their own books. Some textbooks have small printings. Some textbook stores are local monopolies. But even textbooks with large printings assigned by many professors at colleges served by several stores have high costs, so these are not the essential problem.

What restrains the price of ordinary books? With an ordinary book, I decide whether buying the book is worth it, given the price; by lowering the price, the publisher will sell more copies.

But with a college textbook, the person who pays is not the person who decides; professor decides, student pays. So lowering price only gets you more sales if it makes your book more attractive to professors. If we make the reasonable assumption that your professor puts a lower weight on price than do you, we know why college textbooks are expensive.

The power of economics. Just by sitting in my armchair and thinking, using the assumption of rational self-interest, I've learned something about the real world.

But diagnosis alone is unsatisfying. What is the cure?

Think about it before you continue.

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This page maintained by Steven Blatt. Suggestions, comments, questions, and corrections are welcome.