Thorstein Veblen

Thorstein Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American economist and sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known critic of capitalism.

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Thorstein Veblen
Born	Thorstein Bunde Veblen (1857-07-30)July 30, 1857 Cato, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	August 3, 1929(1929-08-03) (aged 72) Menlo Park, California, U.S.
Academic career
Institutions	Cornell University University of Chicago Stanford University University of Missouri The New School for Social Research
Field	Economics, socioeconomics
School or tradition	Institutional economics
Alma mater	Carleton College Johns Hopkins University Yale University Cornell University
Influences	Herbert Spencer, Thomas Paine, William Graham Sumner, Lester F. Ward, William James, Georges Vacher de Lapouge, Edward Bellamy, John Dewey, Gustav von Schmoller, John Bates Clark, Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier
Contributions	Conspicuous consumption, conspicuous leisure, trained incapacity, Veblenian dichotomy

In his best-known book, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Veblen coined the concepts of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. Historians of economics regard Veblen as the founding father of the institutional economics school. Contemporary economists still theorize Veblen's distinction between "institutions" and "technology", known as the Veblenian dichotomy.

As a leading intellectual of the Progressive Era in the US, Veblen attacked production for profit. His emphasis on conspicuous consumption greatly influenced economists who engaged in non-Marxist critiques of fascism, capitalism, and technological determinism.