IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eujhet/v23y2016i2p272-296.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Early contributions to the economics of consumption as a social phenomenon

Author

Listed:
  • Attilio Trezzini

Abstract

During the 1920s some American women economists developed theoretical, empirical and historical analyses that constituted a theory of consumption. The original formulations of this approach were based on the view, theorised by T. Veblen, that consuming certain goods makes it possible to identify with specific social groups. These analyses were explicitly alternative to the theories of consumption based on marginal utility. In the 1930s, however, the analyses of a second generation of women economists became exclusively empirical and the theoretical features that made the approach original and an alternative to marginalism were lost.

Suggested Citation

  • Attilio Trezzini, 2016. "Early contributions to the economics of consumption as a social phenomenon," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 272-296, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:23:y:2016:i:2:p:272-296
    DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2014.881899
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09672567.2014.881899
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09672567.2014.881899?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roger Mason, 1998. "The Economics of Conspicuous Consumption," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1508.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Attilio Trezzini, 2017. "The Social Significance of Consumption and the Elasticity of Output to Demand in the Long Run: A Reply to Gualerzi," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 157-161, January.
    2. Luca Fiorito & Massimiliano Vatiero, 2018. "Positional goods and social welfare: a note on George Pendleton Watkins’ neglected contribution," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 460-472, May.
    3. Philippy, David, 2021. "Ellen Richards’s Home Economics Movement and the Birth of the Economics of Consumption," OSF Preprints v8yfk, Center for Open Science.
    4. Alberti, Manfredi & Asso, Pier Francesco, 2024. "Hazel Kyrk and the rise of empirical research in interwar America," SocArXiv 2uqya, Center for Open Science.
    5. Claudio Cantaro, 2022. "L'approccio classico-keynesiano e la teoria del ruolo sociale del consumo (The classical-Keynesian approach and the Theory of the Social Role of Consumption)," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 75(299), pages 285-306.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alexander Douglas, 2016. "Contrived desires, affluence, and welfare: J.K. Galbraith's Pigovian redistribution argument reconsidered," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 611-640, August.
    2. Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Carlsson, Fredrik & Daruvala, Dinky, 2001. "Measuring Hypothetical Grandparents Preferences For Equality And Relative Standings," Working Papers in Economics 42, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    3. Truyts, Tom, 2012. "Signaling and indirect taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 331-340.
    4. Olivier Bos & Tom Truyts, 2021. "Auctions with signaling concerns," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 420-448, May.
    5. Gierl, Heribert & Huettl, Verena, 2010. "Are scarce products always more attractive? The interaction of different types of scarcity signals with products' suitability for conspicuous consumption," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 225-235.
    6. Kaus, Wolfhard, 2013. "Conspicuous consumption and “race”: Evidence from South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 63-73.
    7. Wilfred Dolfsma, 2002. "Mediated Preferences—How Institutions Affect Consumption," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 449-457, June.
    8. Kang, Yeu-Jin & Park, Seong-Yeon, 2016. "The perfection of the narcissistic self: A qualitative study on luxury consumption and customer equity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3813-3819.
    9. Olof Johansson-Stenman & Fredrik Carlsson & Dinky Daruvala, 2002. "Measuring Future Grandparents" Preferences for Equality and Relative Standing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(479), pages 362-383, April.
    10. Mourad, Siham & Valette-Florence, Pierre, 2016. "Improving prediction with POS and PLS consistent estimations: An illustration," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4675-4684.
    11. Lavoie, Marc, 2004. "Post Keynesian consumer theory: Potential synergies with consumer research and economic psychology," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 639-649, October.
    12. Clinton Gudmunson & Ivan Beutler, 2012. "Relation of Parental Caring to Conspicuous Consumption Attitudes in Adolescents," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 389-399, December.
    13. Alice Martini & Luca Spataro, 2022. "The contribution of Carlo Casarosa on the forerunners of the life cycle hypothesis by Franco Modigliani and Richard Brumberg," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(1), pages 71-101, March.
    14. Roger Mason, 2000. "Conspicuous consumption and the positional economy: policy and prescription since 1970," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(3-4), pages 123-132.
    15. Guido Candela & Massimiliano Castellani & Pierpaolo Pattitoni, 2012. "Tribal art market: signs and signals," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 36(4), pages 289-308, November.
    16. Luuk Van Kempen, 2003. "Fooling the eye of the beholder: deceptive status signalling among the poor in developing countries," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(2), pages 157-177.
    17. Olof Johansson-Stenman, 2002. "Estimating individual driving distance by car and public transport use in Sweden," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(8), pages 959-967.
    18. Yoo, Boonghee & Lee, Seung-Hee, 2012. "Asymmetrical effects of past experiences with genuine fashion luxury brands and their counterfeits on purchase intention of each," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1507-1515.
    19. Ikeda, S., 2001. "Luxury and Wealth Accumulation," ISER Discussion Paper 0528, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    20. Andrzej Nowak & Katarzyna Samson & Karolina Lisiecka & Michal Ziembowicz, 2011. "Lovely weather, isn’t it? On the social dynamics of quality judgment," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 10(2), pages 193-201, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:23:y:2016:i:2:p:272-296. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.