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Positional goods and social welfare: a note on George Pendleton Watkins’ neglected contribution

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  • Luca Fiorito
  • Massimiliano Vatiero

Abstract

Watkins's analysis of adventitious utility contains many aspects that are connected to the contemporary debate on positional goods. First, Watkins adventitious utility emerges from a process of social exclusion and can create negative externalities, in the sense that positive consumption of one individual implies negative consumption by another individual. Not only it creates negative externalities on other individuals, but it can initiate a race-to-the-bottom, where individuals waste an increasing amount of money on goods which do not possess any real utility.

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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:25:y:2018:i:3:p:460-472
    DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2018.1449875
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    1. Luca Fiorito & Massimiliano Vatiero, 2021. "Frank H. Knight on social values in economic consumption: an archival note," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 126-141, January.
    2. Fiorito, Luca, 2022. "The “Social Value” Debate: An Early Chapter in the History of American Marginalism," OSF Preprints kznuj, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles

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