William Baumol

William J. Baumol (1922–2017) was an American economist who served as a professor of economics at New York University and professor emeritus at Princeton University. He is best known for Baumol's cost disease, which explains why labor-intensive sectors such as the arts, health care, and education face rising costs relative to sectors with productivity growth. He authored more than 80 books and several hundred journal articles over his career and was a past president of the American Economic Association.