# Prof. William Baumol's cost disease theory is cited

1 Faculty News November 18, 2012 ![Associated Press logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_031530.jpg?itok=uSjLQY9n)>

Excerpt from the [Associated Press](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g6ZlAVPPrTTJOluLW705rv6TY41w?docId=0a1f7cc0eeec4cd190af7e45a55e85be) -- "There's also the famous analogy of Princeton economists William Baumol and William Bowen from the 1960s, that college teaching is akin to a string quartet. No matter how technology improves, a string quartet simply can't be performed (well) by fewer people than in Beethoven's day."

Additional coverage appeared on [ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/frontier-scaling-online-classes-credit-17754583#.UKuwq4YhR8E) and [CBS News](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57551584/new-frontier-for-scaling-up-online-classes-credit/).

[Read more](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g6ZlAVPPrTTJOluLW705rv6TY41w?docId=0a1f7cc0eeec4cd190af7e45a55e85be)