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	Veblen good - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		However, it is claimed that some types of high-status goods, such as expensive wines or perfumes are Veblen goods, in that decreasing their prices decreases people's preference for buying them because they are no longer perceived as exclusive or high status products.
		The Veblen effect is named after the economist Thorstein Veblen, who invented the concepts of conspicuous consumption and status-seeking.
		The Veblen effect is one of a family of theoretically possible anomalies in the general theory of demand in microeconomics.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Veblen_good (519 words)

	Luxury good - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		In economics a luxury good is a good for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises, contrast with inferior good and normal good.
		Luxury goods are said to have high income elasticity of demand: as people become more wealthy, they will buy more and more of the luxury good.
		In popular culture and the public imagination, certain luxury goods have become status symbols as they tend to signify that the purchasers ability to obtain such a good and thereby his or her income.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Luxury_good (782 words)

	The Naughty Professor
		When Veblen refused, writes his biographer Joseph Dorfman, "[his] days at Chicago were numbered." (The whereabouts of Veblen's wife, the long-suffering Ellen, were a matter of conjecture; she often retreated to a family-owned Oregon timber claim when life with her husband became stressful.
		Veblen wrote to Jordan that "she is not at present hampered for want of money." Jordan warned him that a court would require him to pay his wife hefty maintenance fees for desertion.
		Veblen dipped his pen in acid when describing the modern university president ("an itinerant dispensary of salutary verbiage"), trustees ("quite useless to the university") and professional schools ("the law school belongs in the modern university no more than a school of fencing and dancing").
	www.stanfordalumni.org /news/magazine/1997/sepoct/articles/veblen.html (1298 words)

	Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Ideas / Weary of the leisure class
		Veblen minted the term "conspicuous consumption" to describe the profligacy of the turn-of-the-century rich, who used ornament and glitz to signal their class and wealth to others.
		Born to Norwegian immigrants on a Wisconsin farm in 1857, Veblen was a precocious boy.
		Veblen was equally unorthodox in his thinking, arguing that neither Marxism nor neoclassical economics adequately explained the workings of modern capitalism.
	www.boston.com /news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/12/12/weary_of_the_leisure_class?pg=full (968 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		In economics, normal goods are any goods for which demand increases when income increases.
		In the diagram below, good Y is a normal good since the amount purchased increases from Y1 to Y2 as the budget constraint shifts from BC1 to the higher income BC2.
		Good X is an inferior good since the amount bought decreases from X1 to X2 as income increases.
	www.kisanji.org /default.aspx?modulo=wikipedia&arg=Normal_goods (336 words)

	[No title]
		And the fortunes of the civilised world, for good or ill, have come to turn on the deeds of commission and of omission of these advanced peoples among whom the frame of mind of the common man is the finally conditioning circumstance in what may safely be done or left undone.
		Virtually all of these things have to do with the organised consumption of goods; and virtually all are therefore to be written off as waste motion, so far as regards their effect on the net productive efficiency of the industrial community, or of the industrial system whose tissues are consumed in enterprise of that kind.
		The arguments have been as good as the premises on which they proceed, and the premises have once been good enough to command unquestioning assent; although that is now some time ago.
	socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca /~econ/ugcm/3ll3/veblen/vested (14867 words)

	Modern History Sourcebook: Thorstein Veblen: Conspicuous Consumption, 1902
		Unproductive consumption of goods is honourable, primarily as a mark of prowess and a perquisite of human dignity; secondarily it becomes substantially honourable in itself, especially the consumption of the more desirable things.
		The basis on which good repute in any highly organised industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good name, are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods.
		Consumable goods, and even productive goods generally show the two elements in combination, as constituents of their utility; although, in a general way, the element of waste tends to predominate in articles of consumption, while the contrary is true of articles designed for productive use.
	www.fordham.edu /halsall/mod/1902veblen00.html (4850 words)

	[No title]
		For good or ill, civilized men have come to hold that this matter-of-fact knowledge of things is the only end in life that indubitably justifies itself.
		The lower schools (including the professional schools) are, in the ideal scheme, designed to fit the incoming generation for civil life; they are therefore occupied with instilling such knowledge and habits as will make their pupils fit citizens of the world in whatever position in the fabric of workday life they may fall.
		These uses leave no physical, tangible residue, in the way of durable goods, such as will justify the expenditure in terms of vendible property acquired; therefore they are prima facie imbecile, and correspondingly distasteful, to men whose habitual occupation is with the acquisition of property.
	www.ecn.bris.ac.uk /het/veblen/higher (13824 words)

	Journal of College and Character
		In Veblen’s view these two constituencies, the academic community of scholars and the business community, were incompatible cultures now within the university that could never come to understand one another.
		Cities and states become great not because of good individuals within them but because of attainment of the common good and this is obtained by strong and effective leadership.
		For Veblen, the academy is incomprehensible to the business mind (read administrative governing mind) which sees its practices as archaic, its traditions cumbersome, and its organization obsolete.
	www.collegevalues.org /articles.cfm?id=558&a=1 (3372 words)

	TomFolio.com: by Thorstein Veblen
		In his introductory chapter, Veblen states by way of summary that "the absentee owners large and small have come to control the ways and means of prouction and distribution, at large and in detail, in what is to be done and what is to be left undone.
		Veblen uses the leisure class of his example because it is this class that sets the standards followed by every level of society.
		Veblen argues that the organization of specialized schools & colleges into universities is counterproductive, as it interferes with the work of each school and imposes high overhead costs that would not otherwise exist.
	www.tomfolio.com /SearchAuthorTitle.asp?Aut=Thorstein_Veblen (1360 words)

	Superior good - Psychology Central (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Superior goods make up a larger proportion of consumption as income rises, and as such are a type of normal goods in consumer theory.
		A superior good might be a luxury which isn't purchased at all below a certain level of income, or have a wide quality distribution, such as wine, and holidays (where the number produced may stay constant with rising wealth, but the level of spending goes up, to secure a better experience.)
		The choice of the word "Superior" to define goods of this type suggests that they are the antonym of "Inferior goods", but this is misleading; An inferior good can never be a superior good, but many goods are neither.
	psychcentral.com /psypsych/Superior_goods (378 words)

	Ec 213
		Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) writing in the decade preceding, and in the two decades following, the turn of the Century was particularly adroit at skewering the pretensions of the wealthy and illuminating much that was being ignored by the emerging economics profession.
		For Veblen the power of business to undercut workers' propensity to struggle against their exploitation by provoking emulation was a key to the stability of the social system.
		The only solution for Veblen is in the upheaval of the members of the technical engineering class, whose matter-of-fact working habits made their minds less susceptible to the set of beliefs taken up by the working class, and who might take the direction of production.
	homepages.uel.ac.uk /M.DeAngelis/213ch5c.htm (1655 words)

	Catallarchy » She Is Not Inferior! (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		That is Veblen goods are goods that have been mis-interpreted as a single good when in fact they are several different goods.
		Veblen’s notions that the “conspicuous consumption”; goods he was talking about were serving two purposes, one of actual function, one of class-membership signalling, and that their weird behaviours were a result of the change from one to the other purpose dominating the transaction.
		In addition, it must be a good that constitutes a relatively large portion of the consumer’s expenditures, or else the income effect from the change in price won’t be enough to swamp the substitution effect, which is necessary for the quantity to move in the same direction as price.
	catallarchy.net /blog/archives/2005/09/29/she-is-not-inferior (1440 words)

	H.L. Mencken vs. Mr. Veblen (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Thorstein Veblen, then quite unknown to me. My antagonist manifestly attached a great deal of importance to these borrowed sagacities, for he often heaved them at me in lengths of a column or two, and urged me to read every word of them.
		Veblen was in his first book and his last—that is, in "The Theory of the Leisure Class," and "The Higher Learning in America." 2 I pass on the news to literary archeologists.
		Veblen's theory of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous waste—that what remained of it, after it was practically applied a few times, was no more than a wraith of balderdash.
	tmh.floonet.net /articles/hlm_veblen.html (3631 words)

	The Theory of the Leisure Class: IV
		This most primitive differentiation in the consumption of goods is like the later differentiation with which we are all so intimately familiar, in that it is largely of a ceremonial character, but unlike the latter it does not rest on a difference in accumulated wealth.
		During the earlier stages of economic development, consumption of goods without stint, especially consumption of the better grades of goods, -- ideally all consumption in excess of the subsistence minimum, -- pertains normally to the leisure class.
		The basis on which good repute in any highly organized industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good name, are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods.
	xroads.virginia.edu /~HYPER/VEBLEN/chap04.html (7643 words)

	Giffen good - Psychology Central (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Giffen goods may or may not exist in the real world, but there is an economic model that explains how such a thing could exist.
		Giffen goods are named after Sir Robert Giffen, who was attributed as the author of this idea by Alfred Marshall in his book Principles of Economics.
		Some economists question the empirical validity of the distinction between Giffen and Veblen goods, arguing that whenever there is a substantial change in the price of a good its perceived nature also changes, since price is a large part of what constitutes a product.
	psychcentral.com /psypsych/Giffen_good (1247 words)

	The Princeton Mathematics Community in the 1930s (PMC11)
		Veblen used it, along with a few of his students: they used to make tea on a bunsen burner.
		So he was a good friend, and I loved to listen to him lecture, but he never had any influence on me. I just couldn't understand him.
		We had the great good fortune to become very good friends with the Condons and the Robertsons and the Alexanders, even the Veblens, who were much older.
	libweb.princeton.edu /libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/mathoral/pmc11.htm (10255 words)

	a General Theory of Rubbish: Work and Labour
		Materialistic Fallacies: John Kay has a good article in today's FT (link to his excellent website as easier to access) about the materialistic fallacy that has gripped most of British politics, manifesting itself most clearly in the view that work is an end in itself.
		In a short article in 1898 "the Instinct of Workmanship and the Irksomeness of Labor" Veblen carried on one of his many social analyses and observations linking their functioning to the comlplex nature of human life.
		Agreeing with Marx (though using different vocabulary) Veblen attempted to show why "labour is irksome" and moved him on to show how the historical process transformed work into labour, and in doing so, suppressed the best and brought out the worst in us.
	www.gentheoryrubbish.com /archives/000075.html (660 words)

	Definitions
		Free Good: goods which are unlimited in supply and which therefore have no opportunity cost.
		Economic Good: goods which are scarce because their use has an opportunity cost.
		Public Good: good where consumption by one person does not reduce the amount available for consumption by another person, (non-excluding / non-rivalrous) leads to the concept of the free rider.
	www.revision-notes.co.uk /revision/17.html (1321 words)

	Tutor2u Discussion Forum - Does anyone know examples of Veblen Goods? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		The link posted above is pretty good on this, examples of Veblen goods include high status products like expensive cars or perfume, where if the price falls, people no longer perceive it as exclusive enough and so buy less.
		I always imagine that New York plastic surgeons might be a good example in that the rich punters are likely to seek out the most expensive because they think they are the best or most fashionable.
		Thorstein Veblen, by the way, was a very left-wing thinker who wrote a book called the 'Theory of the Leisure Class' (or something like that.) In it he displays a disgust of the excesses of capitalism and uses snob goods as examples.
	www.tutor2u.net /forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14776 (443 words)

	Vivus prize essay (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		A clever peahen who read Veblen might propose that, for the good of the species, peacocks should stop this mad waste.
		Veblen’s biographers often argue that his contempt for conspicuous consumption reflects the Norwegian frugality of Veblen’s ancestors encountering America’s Gilded Age.
		Wells’ vision of a technocratic utopia run by enlightened engineers, from which all traces of conspicuous signalling and invidious comparison were eradicated.
	www.unm.edu /~psych/faculty/waste.htm (5083 words)

	Bublos.com, Books ›› The Theory of the Leisure Class (Dover Thrift Editions) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Veblen is a refined person in the use of the words he uses to address and explain the economic habits of the refined people of the upper-class of the beginning of the last century.
		I know that Veblen was particularly hard upon the nouveau riche, those trying to prove by buying and having more that they were as good or better than ' old money'.
		Veblen leaves no stone unturned in his dissection of America's upper class and the unconscious traditions that lead them, and us.
	www.bublos.com /isbn/0486280624.html (1346 words)

	The Classics: A Sketch of Western Literature: Chapter 5: Miscellaneous
		Veblen was an American professor of economics who did most of his writing in the early 1900’s.
		Veblen is best known as the author of The Theory of the Leisure Class, a book which sets forth Veblen’s famous theory of “conspicuous consumption.”; Veblen is one of the two or three most profound thinkers that America has produced.
		Veblen applies his theory of status to religion, and argues that God is the epitome of status.
	www.ljhammond.com /classics/cl5.htm (6928 words)

	The Princeton Mathematics Community in the 1930s (PMC14)
		Veblen once remarked quietly, with amusement, that when he and Birkhoff used to go from Princeton up to New York for mathematical meetings he had to dissuade Birkhoff from presenting a solution to the 4-color problem.
		Veblen's attitude about mathematics and mathematics departments was created in the days that mathematics departments were wholly considered as service departments in the university.
		Veblen was not as restrained in her speech as Oswald was.
	libweb.princeton.edu /libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/mathoral/pmc14.htm (18319 words)

	veblen social - Books, journals, articles @ The Questia Online Library (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		What Veblen contributed to the social theory of logic was a history...view shares much with the social psychology of Veblen used in The Theory of the...
		Veblen also stresses the social nature of knowledge...and notes that Veblen "identified socially held technical knowledge...of knowledge is a social process, neoclassical...riot yet grasped Veblens point about the true...
		Veblen fancied himself a socialist looking forward to the day when "the discipline of the machine" would be turned around to promote stringent...
	www.questia.com /search/veblen-social (1396 words)

	Good Times Ending: Veblen
		Professor Veblen published The Theory of Business Enterprise in 1904, during a period of business consolidation similar to our own.
		This resulted, then as now, in a peculiar form of surface prosperity that never seems to get down to the men and women who actually do the nation’s work.
		To the workmen it often means a very substantial gain if they can get a fuller livelihood by working harder or longer, and an era of prosperity gives them a chance of this kind.
	www.badattitudes.com /Veblen.html (407 words)

	Curtis Eaton (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		In Well-Being and Affluence in the Presence of a Veblen Good, Eswaran and I develop a series of simple, competitive general equilibrium models in which there is a pure Veblen good, and therefore a relative consumption externality.
		The Veblen good is pure in the sense that it contributes to the welfare of any one individual only in so far as it affects that individual's relative consumption of the good: it provides no utility of its own accord.
		In all of our models, as productivity increases, the Veblen good eventually comes to dominate the economy in the sense that, by reducing leisure, more than all of any added productivity is dissipated in the production of the Veblen good.
	econ.ucalgary.ca /eaton.htm (2922 words)

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