IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eujhet/v11y2004i2p183-207.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Samuel Johnson on consumer demand, status, and positional goods

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Law

Abstract

Samuel Johnson's ideas on consumer behaviour reflect his interest in the psychology of pleasure, in a society where middling groups were seeking to assert and enhance their standing. '[D]esires which arise from the comparison of our condition with that of others', and desire for novel items of consumption are central elements in Johnson's thought. Advertising, sales of complementary goods, and the activity of collecting, provide examples and special cases. Johnson was aware of some key aspects of the concept of a positional good. 'Owning a private island' is identified as an important example of a positional good for Johnson.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Law, 2004. "Samuel Johnson on consumer demand, status, and positional goods," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 183-207.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:11:y:2004:i:2:p:183-207
    DOI: 10.1080/0967256042000209242
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0967256042000209242
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0967256042000209242?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:11:y:2004:i:2:p:183-207. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.