The Wall Street Journal has an article describing the increase in textbook prices - there was also a recent GAO report about the issue as well - which points out that many states have passed or are considering legislation placing limits on the price of textbooks.

Professors are almost always blissfully unaware of the price of the assigned books, after all we don't buy the book so why should we care about the price? However, in many fields there are reasonably priced substitutes for the well known and expensive textbooks. What is the hitch? Most professors are unaware of these low-cost substitutes for any number of reasons.

My favorite set of potential substitutes at the principles level (biased opinion of course) is McGraw-Hill's Demystified series, to which I contributed Microeconomics Demystified. The Demystified series weigh in at $20 MSRP and can be purchased for less on Amazon and other book sites.

Microeconomics Demystified is 13 chapters. Ranging from comparative advantage and production, through supply and demand, household and firm theory, the primary market structures of competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition, factor markets, and public goods, the book is streamlined for a sixteen week introductory class. There is little math, the analysis is primarily graphical and about the only downside from the point of view of some professors is the lack of test banks, overheads, instructors manuals, etc. However, for those who have been teaching a course for a while these additional tools are not absolutely necessary are they?

There is also a Macroeconomics Demystified, and the Demystified series covers biology, statistics, calculus, physics, finance, and so forth. All are reasonably good introductory textbooks and all are one fifth to one eighth of the price of the bigger textbooks but convey (for the most part) the same information.

News flash to state legislatures: the market is responding to higher priced textbooks. Perhaps slower than desired, but it is responding nonetheless.