Reviews

Why Are The Prices So Damn High? by Alex Tabarrok, Eric Helland

imranh's review

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5.0

I found this book to be approachable as someone with a light (read: I took Microeconomics and that's about it) background in economics. It does a great job of explaining why prices in sectors like education and healthcare are, well, "so damn high." The book, while short, provides a fairly intuitive explanation of the Baumol effect (or "cost disease" as the authors don't like to call it), substitution effects, and especially the effects of stagnating productivity as it relates to prices, and like any good book, backs up its arguments with data.

Recommend this for anyone who finds themselves asking this question.

brady2387's review

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5.0

Really good book. Does a great job explaining substitution principles and the Baumol effect. This book is very easy to read, and I’d recommend it as much for non-economists as academics.
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