Harvey leibenstein’s (1950) seminal QJE article, “Bandwagon, snob, and Veblen Effects in the Theory of the Consumers’ Demand,” defines the bandwagon effect as “the extent to which the demand for a commodity is increased due to the fact that others are also consuming the same commodity”(leibenstein 1950, 189). a key aspect of his formulation is that scarcity precludes runaway bandwagon effects. ...

I want to argue that, whatever some might think, Leibenstein was not so much a mad uncle in the Harvard faculty’s attic (e.g. Stigler 1976 cf. Holden 2005), but rather a brilliant evolutionary economist struggling to escape. My point is that the non-allocative concept of X-efficiency only makes consistent analytical sense in an evolutionary and complex systems theory-based evolutionary framewor...

The choices made by different individuals can reinforce each other. Network externalities provide an obvious example. Explanations for Microsoft’s domination of the operating system market, eBay’s domination of the online auction market, and the permanence of the QWERTY keyboard layout have been based on network effects. The rapid growth in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook...

The choices made by different individuals can reinforce each other. Network externalities provide an obvious example. Explanations for Microsoft’s domination of the operating system market, eBay’s domination of the online auction market, and the permanence of the QWERTY keyboard layout have been based on network effects. The rapid growth in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook...

The main objective of this research is to evaluate the social costs of monopoly in Iranian concentrated industries during 1996-2006. Leibenstein approach has been employed to evaluate the social costs. Leibenstein believed that most monopolistic industries operate inefficiently because of being in the safe margin. Hence, he proposed that the costs of inefficiency be added to the welfare triangl...

this paper studies the effects of the structural variables of the iranian industries sector on the welfare cost using to the structure-conduct-performance (scp) theory. in other words, we investigate the role of structural components and their effects on the size of the welfare cost in iran's industry sector. we have used the leibenstein's model to calculate the deadweight loss and then the pan...

Entrepreneurship is widely recognized as a key factor in economic growth [Leibenstein, 1968]. Historical studies of commercialization a d industrialization suggest that the speed of "take off' is higher when entrepreneurs in related lines of activity work well together [Grassby, 1995]. In the aggregate, ntrepreneurs may work better as a cooperative network than as a collection of competitive in...

A SYMPOSIUM ON DECISION MAKING IN THE FIRM ON RELAXIffi THE MAXIMIZATION POSTULATE Harvey Leibenstein BEHAVIORAL ELEMENTS IN THE THEORY OF THE FIRM: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Warren S. G r a m n THEORY of SURPRISE AND BUSINESS FAILURE B. Gilad, S. Kaish and P. D. Loeb ROUTINIZED BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS Howard M. Weiss 6 Daniel R. Ilgen A THEORY OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL EFFORT DECISIONS Roger Frant...

This paper expands the considerations of Becker’s and Leibenstein’s family theories with a focus on additional member household (pet/animal) in analysis consumption. It is first analytical approach regarding pet goods consumption references to microeconomic based Polish data. The study analyses households’ characteristics that have an impact expenditure goods. article used Household Budget Surv...

X.efficiency theory challenges the maximization postulate of standard economic theory. This paper shows that X-inefficiency is. at times, as much as 30 times greater than allocative inefficiency and suggests reasons for the existence of X-inefficiency—-i.e., (a) incomplete employment contracts, (b) discretionary effort, and (c) nonmaximization of profits. [The Social Sciences Citation Index® (S...