Knowra Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) was an American economist and social theorist who analyzed how status competition and inherited institutions shape economic life.
Conspicuous consumption : Spending on goods and services to display wealth and social standing. Veblen named this practice to explain how visible spending signals status.
Status symbol : An object or practice used to communicate social position. Veblen’s analysis explains why certain possessions acquire value beyond their practical use.
The Theory of the Leisure Class : Veblen’s 1899 book on status, consumption, leisure, and social hierarchy. It introduced his most enduring analysis of conspicuous consumption and leisure.
Neoclassical economics : An economic tradition centered on choices, prices, and resource allocation through models of utility and production. Veblen challenged its tendency to treat economic behavior as individual calculation detached from institutions.
New School for Social Research : A New York university founded in 1919 as an institution for independent scholarship and adult education. Veblen helped found the institution and served as its first director.
Conspicuous leisure : The display of status through publicly visible freedom from productive work. Veblen traced elite prestige to leisure as well as expensive consumption.
Veblen good : A good whose demand may rise as its price increases because a high price signals status. This market phenomenon is named for Veblen’s account of prestige-driven consumption.
The Theory of Business Enterprise : Veblen’s 1904 book examining business, industry, and the pursuit of profit. It develops his distinction between industrial production and pecuniary business interests.
Rational choice theory : A framework that models decisions as choices made to maximize preferences under constraints. Veblen emphasized habits, social imitation, and institutional pressures beyond calculated individual choice.
American institutionalism : A school of American economics that studies how institutions, habits, and collective behavior shape economic change. Veblen’s work became a major intellectual foundation for this tradition.
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