THE PROSPECTS AND ECONOMICS OF DIGITAL-AGE EDUCATION

William G. Bowen in collaboration with Kelly A. Lack, Higher Education in the Digital Age (New York, Princeton & Ann Arbor: Ithaka; Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2013) ("The proposition is known to this day in the literature as the 'cost disease.' The basic idea is simple: in labor-intensive industries such as the performing arts and education, there is less opportunity than in other sectors to increase productivity by, for example, substituting capital for labor. Yet markets dictate that, over time, wages for comparably qualified individuals have to increase at roughly the same rate in all industries. As a result, unit labor cost must be expected to rise faster in the performing art and education than in the economy overall." Id. at 3-4.).