Thorstein Veblen: Turn of the 18th Century Economist

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Thorstein VeblenTurn of the 18th Century
Economist
http//www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/centcat/fac/fac
_img20.html
1857 -1929

• Jennifer Lam
• January 18, 2006

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The Start of Life Personal Relationships

• Born in Wisconsin in 1857
• Grew up in Minnesota
• Father Thomas Anderson
• Bunde Veblen
• Mother Kari Thorsteindatter Veblen
• 11 siblings
• Spouses Ellen May Rolfe Ann Fessenden Babe
  Bradley

Minnesota home where Veblen grew up.
http//www.rcbmi.com/images/case_studies/11_Veblen
F/veblem01_sm.jpg
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Early Studies

• Received Political Economy Philosophy instruction
  from
• Neoclassical economist
• in college
• Pragmatic philosopher
• in graduate school
• Laissez-faire proponent
• while studying to obtain Ph.D.

Yale University Late 1800s http//www.philaprint
shop.com/colleges.html
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Theories of Consumption and Production

• Neoclassical theories of consumption and
  production
• Wrote the Theory of the Leisure Class in 1899
• Coined the terms conspicuous consumption and
  pecuniary emulation
• Criticized conspicuous consumption
• Believed that much of society was driven by
  social competition

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Activities 1900s

• Economy professor and lecturer
• Helped find the New School for Social
• Research in 1919
• Counterpart in forming
• the Technical Alliance
• in 1918-1919

Faculty meeting at the New School for Social
Research
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Analytical Contribution

• Institutionalism government control social
  reform equal distribution of income
• Modern industry results from a conflict between
  consuming and vending goods
• Ceremonial/instrumental
• dichotomy
• Emphasized connection
• between change and
• technology

http//www.linuxinsider.com/images/ rw3856/circuit
-technology-03.jpg
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Relationships

• Influences Herbert Spencer, William Graham
  Sumner, William James, Georges
• Vacher de Lapouge, John Dewey
• Opposed Karl Marx, Neoclassical
• economics, German historical school
• Influenced Wesley Clair Mitchell, Clarence Edwin
  Ayres, John Kenneth Galbraith, C. Wright Mills,
  Robert A. Brady

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Works Cited

• Blaug, Mark. Veblen, Thorstein Bunde. 17
  January 2007. http//qed.econ.queensu.ca/walras/bi
  os/veblen.html.
• John Dewey. 17 January 2007. http//www.fecundit
  y.com/cgi-bin/simulacra.pl?JohnDewey.
• Flamme, Karen. 17 January 2007. Great Economists
  and Their Times. The World of Economics.
• http//www.rcbmi.com/images/case_studies/11_Veblen
  F/veblem01_sm.jpg
• Thorstein Veblen. 16 January 2007. Wikipedia,
  the free encyclopedia. http//en.wikipedia.org/wik
  i/Thorstein_Veblen.
• The University of Chicago Centennial
  Catalogues. 17 January 2007. http//www.lib.uchic
  ago.edu/e/spcl/centcat/fac/fac_img20.html.
• The Veblenite. 17 January 2007.
  http//de.geocities.com/veblenite/index.htm.