In the 1960s the economists WilliamBaumol and William Bowen identified the productivity problem at the root of the rising relative cost of higher education.
This is at the heart of a lot of the work of WilliamBaumol, trying to untangle what it is that makes some societies innovate furiously, others not so much.
Pioneered by Alfred Kahn, George Stigler and WilliamBaumol, it has sought to understand the nature of innovation, technological advance, consumer welfare, and competition in industries with just a few providers of goods and services.