I think it was Freakanomics that had an episode about textbook cost. Their idea was it was a disparity between those choosing the textbooks (professors) to those bearing the costs (students). In other words, it is much easier to increase the cost of a product if those bearing the cost don’t have a say.
Oddly enough, one of my professors wrote textbooks for his classes that he gave to us for the cost of copying them. He was outraged by the price of textbooks.
