Thorstein Veblen

From Conservapedia

Thorstein Bunde Veblen (1857-1929) was an American economist who studied institutions and criticized neoclassical economics.

Veblen insisted that customs played a prominent role in shaping economic behavior, and that social institutions are very influential over economics. He was a prolific writer, and his most famous work was his first: The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). There he coined the term "conspicuous consumption" in order to describe the "leisure class."