IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v21y2000i3-4p123-132.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conspicuous consumption and the positional economy: policy and prescription since 1970

Author

Listed:
  • Roger Mason

    (School of Management, University of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK)

Abstract

In more recent years, the social significance of consumption has increased to such an extent that activity in the so-called 'positional economy' is now seen to threaten prospects for sustainable, long-term economic growth. In particular, the demand for status goods, fuelled by conspicuous consumption, has diverted many resources away from investment in the manufacture of more material goods and services in order to satisfy consumer preoccupations with their relative social standing and prestige. This paper looks at the policies and prescriptions which have been proposed in order to reduce levels of 'conspicuous waste' in the positional sector, and to redirect resources back into more productive economic activity. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:21:y:2000:i:3-4:p:123-132
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.977
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/mde.977
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.977?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gene M. Grossman & Carl Shapiro, 1988. "Foreign Counterfeiting of Status Goods," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(1), pages 79-100.
    2. 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. Oliver Hinz & Martin Spann & Il-Horn Hann, 2015. "Research Note—Can’t Buy Me Love…Or Can I? Social Capital Attainment Through Conspicuous Consumption in Virtual Environments," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(4), pages 859-870, December.
    2. Tan, Yuxuan & Gong, Yanping & Xie, Julan & Li, Jian & Liu, Yongdan, 2022. "More mindfulness, less conspicuous consumption? Evidence from middle-aged Chinese consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. João Bernardino & Tanya Araújo, 2010. "On Positional Consumption and Technological Innovation- an Agent-based Approach," Working Papers Department of Economics 2010/04, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Antonia Correia & Metin Kozak & Seongseop (Sam) Kim, 2018. "Luxury shopping orientations of mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(1), pages 92-108, February.
    4. Tin Cheuk Leung, 2013. "What Is the True Loss Due to Piracy? Evidence from Microsoft Office in Hong Kong," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(3), pages 1018-1029, July.
    5. Truong, Yann & McColl, Rod, 2011. "Intrinsic motivations, self-esteem, and luxury goods consumption," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 555-561.
    6. Luke Butcher & Ian Phau & Min Teah, 2016. "Brand prominence in luxury consumption: Will emotional value adjudicate our longing for status?," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(6), pages 701-715, November.
    7. Bian, Qin & Forsythe, Sandra, 2012. "Purchase intention for luxury brands: A cross cultural comparison," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1443-1451.
    8. Ornella Tarola & Jean Gabszewicz & Didier Laussel, 2011. "To Acquire, or To Compete? An Entry Dilemma," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 369-383, December.
    9. Marta Biancardi & Andrea Di Liddo & Giovanni Villani, 2022. "How do Fines and Their Enforcement on Counterfeit Products Affect Social Welfare?," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 1547-1573, December.
    10. Bate, Roger & Jin, Ginger Zhe & Mathur, Aparna, 2011. "Does price reveal poor-quality drugs? Evidence from 17 countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1150-1163.
    11. Laura Alfaro & Cathy Bao & Maggie X. Chen & Junjie Hong & Claudia Steinwender, 2022. "Omnia Juncta in Uno*: foreign powers and trademark protection in Shanghai's concession era," CEP Discussion Papers dp1827, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Zoya Kotelnikova, 2014. "Consumption Of Counterfeit Alcohol In Contemporary Russia: The Role Of Cultural And Structural Factors," HSE Working papers WP BRP 47/SOC/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    15. Catherine Viot & André Le Roux & Florence Kremer, 2014. "Attitude towards the purchase of counterfeits: Antecedents and effect on intention to purchase," Post-Print halshs-02530136, HAL.
    16. Chao, Hong & Ho, Chun-Yu & Leung, Tin Cheuk & Ng, Travis, 2017. "To root or not to root? The economics of jailbreak," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 481-497.
    17. Marie Thursby & Richard Jensen & Jerry Thursby, 1991. "Smuggling, Camouflaging, and Market Structure," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(3), pages 789-814.
    18. 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.
    19. Ling Jiang & Veronique Cova, 2012. "Love for Luxury, Preference for Counterfeits –A Qualitative Study in Counterfeit Luxury Consumption in China," Post-Print hal-02062369, HAL.
    20. Nikolaus Thumm & Vincenzo Butticè & Federico Caviggioli & Chiara Franzoni & Giuseppe, Scellato, 2018. "Impact of counterfeiting on the performance of digital technology companies," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2018-03, Joint Research Centre.

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:21:y:2000:i:3-4:p:123-132. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.