3 ms·

I've seen a lot of recent analysis related to baumol effect. The analysis usually looks into productivity gains, finds none then that declares baumol cost dis

I've seen a lot of recent analysis related to baumol effect. The analysis usually looks into productivity gains, finds none then that declares baumol cost disease. But I feel like this is incomplete. We need to know why we don't see productivity gains. For instance the nature of live music is that it's unscalable (excluding larger venues) but pharmacists can't be scaled due to regulations. And a lot of the broad statistical measures that that I've seen used to find baumol cost disease can't necessarily differentiate the two.

H8crilA 7y ago
Isnt it usually about services? Like teachers or massage therapists or barbers. There's a limit of how many people one of them can serve a day. Shops (including pharmacies) have probably become more effective - look at Amazon. A lot of shopping is online which is surely more productive (for example - you can buy without driving there first). The Economist had an article on the topic recently: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/06/20/the-rising-cost-of-education-and-health-care-is-less-troubling-than-believed https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/06/20/t...
- JamesBarney 7y ago
  For pharmacies I was specifically talking about the the pharmacist which technology can't make more effective because a law requires one to be on site It seems they they mostly focus on healthcare and education. And while the babysitting aspect of teaching can't be made more efficient the teaching aspect can be. Flatiron for instance costs less than my Alma mater per semester, and is teaching programming at 2-4x the rate I learned in undergrad. I don't think there is any reason other undergrad/grad programs can't be made similarly more efficient. And healthcare is obviously an ocean of waste and inefficiency.

3 ms·

I've seen a lot of recent analysis related to baumol effect. The analysis usually looks into productivity gains, finds none then that declares baumol cost dis

by JamesBarney 7y ago

H8crilA 7y ago
Isnt it usually about services? Like teachers or massage therapists or barbers. There's a limit of how many people one of them can serve a day. Shops (including pharmacies) have probably become more effective - look at Amazon. A lot of shopping is online which is surely more productive (for example - you can buy without driving there first). The Economist had an article on the topic recently: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/06/20/the-rising-cost-of-education-and-health-care-is-less-troubling-than-believed https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/06/20/t...
- JamesBarney 7y ago
  For pharmacies I was specifically talking about the the pharmacist which technology can't make more effective because a law requires one to be on site It seems they they mostly focus on healthcare and education. And while the babysitting aspect of teaching can't be made more efficient the teaching aspect can be. Flatiron for instance costs less than my Alma mater per semester, and is teaching programming at 2-4x the rate I learned in undergrad. I don't think there is any reason other undergrad/grad programs can't be made similarly more efficient. And healthcare is obviously an ocean of waste and inefficiency.