# Prof. William Baumol's "cost disease" theory and new book, "The Cost Disease," are highlighted

1 Faculty News August 30, 2013 ![The Washington Post logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_031074.jpg?itok=f6OME_Rm)>

Excerpt from [The Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/30/the-tuition-is-too-damn-high-part-v-is-the-economy-forcing-colleges-to-spend-more/?tid=pm_business_pop) -- "[William Baumol](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/william-baumol), who is, amazingly, still an active economist at age 90 and just released a book on these very issues, realized in a series of papers in the 1960s (many coauthored with future Princeton President William Bowen) that industries that didn’t see productivity increases might still see costly wage increases. 'The insight that Baumol and Bowen had was that there are some industries where productivity growth is very likely and some where it’s not,' Robert Archibald, an economist at the College of William & Mary, explains."

[Read more](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/30/the-tuition-is-too-damn-high-part-v-is-the-economy-forcing-colleges-to-spend-more/?tid=pm_business_pop)