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

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.     

Veblen’s System of Conspicuous Waste

Abstract:

The touchstone by which Thorstein Veblen evaluated an expenditure was “whether it furthers the life process taken impersonally.” For Veblen, the economic problem involved the problem of social provisioning, the way a community provides for itself. To a large degree, social provisioning has been impeded by the system of conspicuous waste, a “scheme of properties, decencies, and standards of living, the economic motive of which is competitive spending.” The system of conspicuous waste represents a cultural unfolding of conspicuous waste, prompted by the introduction of continuous-mass production in the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries. Conspicuous waste refers to the allocation of resources, time, and effort that detract from the life process. Veblen rejected the idea that the system of conspicuous waste benefits society. For Veblen, the standard of living refers to that level of consumption at which people are expected to consume. Products that prove serviceable, however, may also serve as symbols of invidiousness. Veblen used the system of conspicuous waste to compare the diverse cultural responses of England and Germany to the same technology in the early twentieth century. The system, however, plays a central role in absorbing increases in output and maintaining profits. Whether it can continue to do so remains questionable.     

三维自我对炫耀性购买行为动机影响的实证研究——基于中国城市消费者的检验

笔者以中国城市消费者为例,从重要心理变量自我视角实证探讨了炫耀性购买行为的营销内涵和动机及三维自我因素的影响效果。结果表明:从自我角度炫耀性购买行为动机包括外我性动机和内我性动机两大类型;炫耀性购买行为包括外表张扬的外显性炫耀和内部内敛的内隐性炫耀;自我三个维度对炫耀性购买行为动机呈现出不同程度的影响。     

Conspicuous consumption, economic growth, and taxation

Commodities do not only serve the purpose of satisfying direct needs in the production and consumption process. Some of them are also used to display social status and to affect the position of an individual in society. The paper looks at status-seeking activities in an economic-growth context. Two questions are asked. Does status-seeking behavior accelerate economic growth? And: should capital accumulation be subsidized to correct for the status externality? The answers to both questions are ambiguous.     

Globalization and household saving: is there a link?

This article proposes that globalization can affect household saving in the long run in a number of ways. Social interactions between different cultures can induce value changes, which can result in shifts in consumption and saving behaviour. International trade allows consumers to have easier access to status goods, stimulating consumption and dampening saving. Extending from Veblen’s conspicuous consumption theory, saving may also decrease when globalization leads to greater population mobility and fosters urbanization, thus enhancing the importance of consumption as a way to display wealth. In addition, financial globalization reduces credit constraints and allows households to save less. Using cross-country data from the United Nations (UN), the OECD, and other sources, this article finds evidence that household saving declines as globalization deepens, especially in the social and cultural dimensions.     

基于SMC的炫耀性消费行为影响因素实证研究

作为一种日益普遍的消费行为,炫耀性消费的形成机理至今尚未明确。作者在已有研究基础上提出一个基于商品象征意义、参照群体影响和地位消费的炫耀性消费行为前置影响因素模型,并通过实证分析我国消费者对高档名牌商品的消费观念和态度以检验此模型的有效性。研究结果表明:商品的象征意义对炫耀性消费和地位消费有显著正影响;参照群体的影响对炫耀性消费的作用不显著,但对地位消费有显著影响;此外,地位消费显著影响炫耀性消费。     

相对收入与个人效用——来自中国的证据

本文考察相对收入和相对消费对人们的影响程度,并比较社会中不同收入的不平等程度是否对这种影响起作用。笔者在中国城镇居民中进行了调查实验,用特定指标衡量人们对收入和消费的相对性关注程度。实证分析发现：（1）相对收入和绝对收入对个人效用的影响始终存在,但在炫耀性消费品（如汽车和住房）和非炫耀性消费品（如假期和保险）上的影响程度不同;（2）人们对相对收入和相对消费的关注程度较为集中在同一个区间里;（3）教育程度和职业显著地影响相对收入对人们的效用,男性比女性显著地更加在意汽车和住房的相对消费;（4）社会收入不平等没有显著影响对相对收入的关注度,但对住房消费的相对性有影响。这些发现为我们了解消费行为决策和认识宏观经济中收入不平等的消费效应有一定的启示。     

中国居民位置消费行为的实证分析

本文在简介位置消费理论及对我国居民位置消费行为进行理论分析的基础上,运用时序数据和横截面数据分别从时空两个维度构建函数模型,并对我国居民的位置消费行为的存在进行了实证检验;通过分析位置消费行为的双重效应,提出了规制人们消费行为的政策建议.     

The Smithian ontology of ‘relative poverty’: revisiting the debate between Amartya Sen and Peter Townsend*

ABSTRACT

Although ‘relative poverty’ is a phrase of immediate recognition, wide circulation and an ever increasing acceptance in the last half century, the concept itself remains surprisingly undertheorised. This paper wishes to try and remedy this discursive deficiency by proposing an ontological elucidation of the nature of our needs. The author re-visits the dispute between Amartya Sen and Peter Townsend — a duel of crossed wires (if not sabres), which can be seen as representative of the various theoretical takes on the nature of relative poverty. While the dispute itself ended with an unfortunate misunderstanding between the two scholars, whose different disciplinary affiliations have done nothing but replicate the rift, the author nonetheless foregrounds the commonality between the two thinkers – their respective identification with Adam Smith. By exploring points of differences and convergence with Adam Smith’s own ontology of needs, which the author reconstructed elsewhere, the paper hopes to offer insights into the ontology of ‘relative poverty’ as well as to suggest that taking this ontology seriously would lead us inevitably to a re-examination of ‘economic methodology’.     

自我概念归因与炫耀性消费行为关系的实证研究

本文在回顾炫耀性消费相关理论的基础上,实证研究了两种自我概念归因即个人自我归因——享乐倾向和他人自我归因——公众性自我知觉以及参照群体对炫耀性消费的影响。结果表明,享乐倾向、公众性自我知觉、参照群体对炫耀性消费都有影响,且参照群体还对自我概念归因与炫耀性消费之间的关系具有调节作用。     

Comments on “The Corporate State,Economic Performance,and Social Policy”

This paper provides an introduction to the Minsky-Veblen Cycles as a specific example of pluralist economic thinking in the context of the recent global economic crisis. It illustrates how pluralism can be applied to economic research. Specifically, the Minsky-Veblen Cycles combine three elements of institutional and post-Keynesian thought to explain key features of the current crisis. These elements are (1) John Maynard Keynes's postulate of effective demand, (2) Hyman Minsky's financial instability hypothesis, and (3) Thorstein Veblen's concept of conspicuous consumption. In this paper, we have a two-fold approach to them: First, we systematize the connection between the Minsky-Veblen Cycles as a theoretical argument and the epistemological rationale of a pluralist approach to economics. Second, we contrast the implications of our approach for incorporating behavioral assumptions in macroeconomic arguments to mainstream claims for a "microfoundation" of macroeconomic theory.     

Optimal consumption and the environment Choosing between ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ goods

In this paper, a model with heterogeneous consumption goods is presented. Consumers are assumed to choose between two different consumption goods, characterized by a different impact on the environment. This implies that, in a decentralized economy, government can sustain the social optimum by setting two Pigouvian taxes: one on production as a whole and the other on dirty consumption acting as an incentive in favour of clean consumption. In accordance with the previous literature, a trade-off between a clean environment and economic activity evolves. However, this trade-off is now mitigated by the additional taxation on polluting consumption which allows the control of pollution stock evolution through the substitution between clean and dirty commodities.     

马克思的奢侈品生产理论及其现实意义

本文认为,马克思的奢侈品生产理论给我们的启示是:奢侈品和必要消费资料是相对的、互相转化的。随着人们生活水平的提高,奢侈品就变成必要消费资料。在社会主义条件下奢侈品消费者是一部分先富裕起来的群体,扩大奢侈品消费群体的过程就是提高人们生活水平的过程。越来越多的奢侈品成为必要生活资料,应当成为劳动力价值的构成部分。要提高工资水平以适应部分奢侈品消费的需要。当必要消费资料基本满足后,生产奢侈品是发展生产的方向。     

消费安全的商品信息不对称问题研究

生产厂商和消费者之间商品信息不对称导致消费者的消费安全受到严重威胁。当前我国商品信息不对称问题产生的根源,既有客观因素又有制度层面的因素,因此应采取措施加以改进,如建立健全商品信息的标准系统,实行自视管理;构建商业信誉;长度开放市场;提高行业自律和民主监督。     

收入差距、位置消费与社会稳定

适度、合理的收入差距,不仅是激励人们竞争,促进发展的重要务件,也是位置消费产生的基本条件;但过分悬殊的收入差距则不仅会影响人们的社会心理,不利于提高有效消费,而且可能产生畸形的位置消费行为,甚至会因此影响社会的稳定.在分析和研究目前收入分配问题时,应当从位置消费的新视角研究它们对社会稳定的影响.研究位置消费有利于我们从人们相互比较的满意度中观察改革的效果,权衡各项利弊得失,并及时地采取微调措施,尽可能地减少改革的摩擦和阻力.     

Consumption externalities and the effects of international income transfers on the global environment

In this paper, we extend the standard model of private provision of public goods by including consumption externalities to characterize a situation in which economic activities pollute the environment. We consider a case in which there are an industrial country which can afford to invest in the environment and a developing country which cannot. Then, we show that international income transfers in both directions can improve the global environmental quality as well as the welfare of each country. We also show that the results have important implications for policies such as official development assistance or the assignment of tradable emission permits.