College Textbooks and the Monopoly Thereof
September 14, 2007

I bought a few of my textbooks for this semester. Man, that hurt and happens to be textbook (hah, pun!) example of why monopolies (even localized) are terrible for the consumer. Two used textbooks combined cost $235 and each had at least ten editions before it. Why? Both St. Cloud State University and the professors working for it support and enforce a monopoly. Amongst the two or three major textbook publishers, there is so little competition and so much price fixing that a fair deal can never be struck between a consumer (student) and the firm (publisher) that they are dealing with.

The one book that I definitely will not be purchasing through normal channels is a basic book on HR. How much is this book for a basic survey class, you may ask? It would cost me $160 for something that on the free market costs considerably less.

Is this really the outright murder of semi-free-market capitalism in higher learning institutions? The real reason that I'm paying $160 isn't because it costs that much to manufacture the textbook. It isn't for the Indian editor to add a few sentences and re-arrange homework problems to make this a new edition. It can't be for the raw materials used. It certainly isn't for the rigorous fact checking.

What is it for then? What explains the difference between the free market on educational books and the closed market on college textbooks other than a monopoly?