9/11/2005

Textbooks

With the rate of college tuition rising faster than the rate of inflation, students are relying more heavily on loans or other forms of borrowing to get that degree we've heard is so important our whole lives. Tuition bears a majority of the cost that college students pay, but another cost that recieves the lesser attention is college texbooks. Congress has began to show concern over the rising costs of textbooks by commisioning a study done by the Government Accountability Office(GAO). The GAO reported that the price of textbooks have tripled since 1986 bringing the average increase per year to six percent- twice as much as the rate of inflation. This year I would have only saved about $60 by purchasing my books online. I spent over $600 for six books. That is about one-third of what I paid for tuition. Textbook publishers claim that the CD-ROMs, study guides, and other supplemental materials are accounting for some of those costs. If my memory serves me correctly, I can only recall two classes in four years that I actually used any of those additions that created higher prices. And how many times can you revise a history book that is based on a certain time period. I say forget gas prices, I want a discount on my books!

3 comments:

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on Bob's post for no link.

-1 on Connor's comment for inventing a new word.

I don't want to seem like I don't feel your pain, but (undergraduate) college education is a phenomenonally good investment. If you have to pay costs up front to make more money down the road, that shouldn't be a problem.

One reason that textbook prices are going up so fast is that we are discounting the price of college. This makes people buy more of it. When they do this pushes up the demand for texts, and as a result the price as well. This is basic economics - one good in a pair of complements is on sale, so the price of the other good is being driven up.

Attributing the price of textbooks to CDs is a diversion. They simply don't add much to the marginal cost.

I can see Mia's point, but I don't think we should read in that changing books is done arbitrarily. Changing texts is a far bigger deal for a professor than for a student, and is never done lightly.

Lastly, college bookstores are part of the problem. On most campuses they have monopoly power, and can use that to charge higher prices. But even so, they don't make so much money that private bookstores can easily compete close to campus unless the campus has 15-20 K or more students.

Matthew said...

Dr. Tufte said that “we are discounting the price of college.” I disagree. Tuition and fee prices are going up. What I think is going up is the value of college, and so the demand is going up, thus increasing prices. Yet, maybe it's a little of both.

Dr. Tufte said...

What I meant was that state schools like SUU are offering a heavily discounted product whose complement is textbooks. It shouldn't be surprising that the price of the latter is inflated.