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Nitpick: Veblen good, not giffen


Was going to go with Veblen because of status signalling, but when the price elasticity of demand gets inverted, it was Giffen.


Isn't that true for Veblen too?


If I remember F&D correctly, Veblen was more of a back fitted narrative construct around luxury goods, where Giffen was the "impossible," artifact of inverting the price elasticity of demand. They are related, but Veblen didn't write that a wave of debt would cause leisure consumption, whereas the wave of debt fueled demand is just the distortion that would make Giffen goods possible.




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