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Well-Being and Affluence in the Presence of a Veblen Good

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Author Info
B. Curtis Eaton
Mukesh Eswaran

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Abstract

We develop a series of simple general equilibrium models that incorporate a pure Veblen good. We examine the comparative statics of well-being, and the consumption of leisure, the Veblen good, a standard consumption good, a standard public good, and a good that we call community, with respect to exogenous increases in productivity. In all of our models, as productivity incrases, the Veblen good eventually comes to dominate the economy in the sense that, by reducing leisure, more than all of any added productivity is dissipated in the production of the Veblen good. In fact, except for some knife edge cases, the Veblen good eventually crowds out all other economic activity. In particular, our findings show that, in the presence of a Veblen good, productivity increases contribute to the destruction of social capital.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of Calgary in its series Working Papers with number 2008-12.

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Date of creation: 07 Feb 2008
Date of revision: 07 Feb 2008
Handle: RePEc:clg:wpaper:2008-12

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Related research
Keywords: conspicuous consumption; Veblen; well-being; leisure; social capital;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Social Norms and Social Capital; Social Networks Economic Anthropology

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    Other versions:
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