Thornstein Veblen 1857 -1929 described conspicuous consumption. This he said was consumption designed to show how wealthy a person was. Outlandish dress for example rendered the wearer unfit to do jobs of work. The wearer demonstrated superiority over the working class. The elaborately dressed woman also served the purpose of demonstrating the wealth of the man she belonged to. (Veblen enjoyed provoking people!)

The hypothesis that resulted was that people buy some goods for their status value. The more expensive the goods are, the more people will desire them. Thus there will be an upward sloping demand curve. Evidence for the existence of these goods is weak. Like Giffen goods,it is hard to prove that increasing price of the good leads to an increase in demand. It is perhaps impossible to avoid the charge that no other determinant of demand changed during the period of experimentation or observation. Thus the increase in demand may not be caused by the price change rather a change in one of the determinantsfor example the price change may have created some extra publicity causing the whole demand curve to shift to the right.

a Veblen good is a good that¹s quantity demanded rises when its price rises. There existence is doubtful. Veblen goods are sometimes called goods of ostentation.