Editing Textbook (section)

===The market for textbooks===
[[File:Ems cover.jpg|thumb|Sri Lanka emergency medical technician textbook]]
As in many industries, the number of providers has declined in recent years (there are just a handful of major textbook companies in the United States).<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 May 2011 |title=The Columbus Dispatch – Local/State &#124; The Columbus Dispatch |url=http://www.dispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2007/08/05/20070805-D1-01.html |access-date=20 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523050151/http://www.dispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2007/08/05/20070805-D1-01.html |archive-date=23 May 2011 }}</ref> Also, elasticity of demand is fairly low. The term "broken market" appeared in the economist James Koch's analysis of the market commissioned by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Koch |first=James P. |date=June 2006 |title=An Economic Analysis of Textbook Prices and the Textbook Market |url=http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED497025&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED497025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120622145100/http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED497025&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED497025 |archive-date=22 June 2012 |access-date=12 June 2012}}</ref>

In the United States, the largest textbook publishers are [[Pearson Education]], [[Cengage]], [[McGraw-Hill Education]], and [[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]]. Together they control 90% of market revenue.<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 January 2020 |title=Textbook publishers Cengage, McGraw-Hill extend merger agreement to May 1 |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mcgrawhill-m-a-cengage-idUSKBN1ZS37C |access-date=2 December 2020}}</ref> Another textbook publisher is [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Alfonso, III |first=Fernando |date=24 July 2020 |title=This one letter in a textbook could change how millions of kids learn about race |publisher=CNN |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/23/us/black-capitalization-school-textbooks-mcgraw-hill-trnd/index.html |access-date=2 December 2020}}</ref>

The market for textbooks does not reflect classic supply and demand because of [[Principal–agent problem|agency problems]].<ref>{{citation |title=Textbook Prices |url=http://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/textbook-prices |access-date=20 February 2023 |date=27 January 2015 |work=[[Initiative on Global Markets]]}}</ref>