Why are the costs of health care and higher education rising so dramatically? How can we keep them affordable for lower and middleincome American families? The exploding cost of health care in the United States is a source of widespread alarm. Similarly, the upward spiral of college tuition fees is cause for serious concern. In this concise and illuminating book, the wellknown economist William J. Baumol explores the causes of these seemingly intractable problems and offers a surprisingly simple explanation. Baumol identifies the "cost disease" as a major source of rapidly rising costs in service sectors of the economy. Once we understand that disease, he explains, effective responses become apparent.Baumol presents his analysis with characteristic clarity, tracing the fastrising prices of health care and education in the United States and other major industrial nations, then examining the underlying causes, which have to do with the nature of providing laborintensive services. The news is good, Baumol reassures us, because the nature of the disease is such that society will be able to afford the rising costs.
Why are the costs of health care and higher education rising so dramatically? How can we keep them affordable for lower and middleincome American families? The exploding cost of health care in the United States is a source of widespread alarm. Similarly, the upward spiral of college tuition fees is cause for serious concern. In this concise and illuminating book, the wellknown economist William J. Baumol explores the causes of these seemingly intractable problems and offers a surprisingly simple explanation. Baumol identifies the "cost disease" as a major source of rapidly rising costs in service sectors of the economy. Once we understand that disease, he explains, effective responses become apparent.Baumol presents his analysis with characteristic clarity, tracing the fastrising prices of health care and education in the United States and other major industrial nations, then examining the underlying causes, which have to do with the nature of providing laborintensive services. The news is good, Baumol reassures us, because the nature of the disease is such that society will be able to afford the rising costs.
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