Hazel Kyrk's A Theory of Consumption, Veblen's Business and Industrial Concerns, and W.C. Mitchell's Essays on Spending and Money: Conceptual Links

Abstract

This chapter discusses conceptual links among Hazel Kyrk’s A Theory of Consumption (1923), the overall work of Thorstein Veblen, and Wesley C. Mitchell’s essays on spending and money. The three authors are concerned with transformations in production, related changes in the organization of consumption, and the effects on people. The approach is based on reading of Kyrk’s book in light of an integrated view of Veblen’s overall work. This chapter explains how Mitchell’s essays on money and spending built on Veblen’s work and discusses their relevance for understanding Kyrk’s book as conceptually linked to institutional economics. This chapter delineates the following commonalities: conception of living humans and money as an institution; distinction between business and industrial concerns; connection between distribution, waste, and consumption; and Veblen’s “machine process” of standardization in production and its relation to consumption. This chapter brings more detail in the conceptual and theoretical discussion of Veblen’s influence on Kyrk’s book.

Citation

Todorova, Z. (2024), "Hazel Kyrk's A Theory of Consumption, Veblen's Business and Industrial Concerns, and W.C. Mitchell's Essays on Spending and Money: Conceptual Links", Fiorito, L., Scheall, S. and Suprinyak, C.E. (Ed.) Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology: Including a Symposium on Hazel Kyrk's: A Theory of Consumption 100 Years after Publication (Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol. 41D), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 27-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0743-41542024000041D004