Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929)

Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929). . , Thorstein Bunde Veblen, an internationally recognized economist, was born one mile north of Valders on July 30, 1857. The sixth of twelve children of Norwegian immigrants Thomas Anderson Veblen and Kari Bunde Veblen, Veblen spent his first seventeen years on farms here and in Minnesota. Those formative years in which he experienced the regimentation of daily toil fundamentally influenced Veblen’s perspective throughout his career. , After graduating from Carleton College in 1880, Veblen entered Johns Hopkins University to study history and philosophy, but he soon left for Yale, where he earned a PhD in philosophy in 1884. Veblen later continued his studies in economics at Cornell University. Veblen taught at several academic institutions, including the University of Chicago, Stanford University, The New School, and the University of Missouri. , Unlike his contemporaries, John Bates Clark and Frank Knight, Veblen saw economic organization as a human institution not subject to any natural laws. Veblen asserted that economic behavior is shaped by institutions as well as by human biology and psychology. He was one of the first intellectuals to identify advertising, financial manipulation, and stagnation as essential features of a mature business economy, and his theories profoundly influenced the development of institutional economics. , Between 1884 and 1925, Veblen published ten books and fifty articles. Veblen wrote many of his published works during summers at his study cabin on Washington Island in Door County. The bulk of his writings examined the relationship between consumption and wealth in society. In his first book, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Veblen introduced the concept of “conspicuous consumption,” the practice of purchasing goods or services to publicly display wealth rather than to cover basic needs. , After retiring to California, Veblen died in Menlo Park on August 3, 1929. His theories remain integral to understanding modern consumer behavior.