In 1899, Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase 'conspicuous consumption' to describe status-seeking in the obscenely unequal world of late-nineteenth century America. Many of the aspects he described in ...

This behavior is known as conspicuous consumption because these consumers want others to see them with the product. Until now ...

A wealthy entrepreneur buys a banana for $6.2 million and then eats it at a press event. How can we make sense of this apparent monied madness?

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. When Thorstein Veblen invented the notion of “conspicuous consumption” he was not thinking of a crypto ...

Last month, a crypto entrepreneur bought a banana taped to a wall — a conceptual art piece by Maurizio Cattlean — at a ...

He promotes his conspicuous consumption as an iconic moment in the art’s provenance. As is true for most ironic humor, a question remains: Who is the target of the joke? Anjan Chatterjee ...

Wilson, Anne, Silvia Bellezza, and Michael I. Norton. "Minimalism as a Status Symbol: When and Why We Admire Conspicuous Non-Consumption." Working Paper, October 2019.

The basis on which good repute in any highly organized industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good ...