Economics isn’t taught in the hearing healthcare curriculum, but it should be! We are witnessing Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand at work, steering hearing healthcare markets toward equilibrium through massive and/or rapid shifts in consumer demands, professional training, technological advancement, capital investment, industry consolidation, regulatory control, product and service distribution, and strategic pricing. We’ll look at some of those market shifts and try to use basic economics to gain a better understanding of what’s going on and how it is affecting hearing healthcare professionals and the consumers they serve.
