That is exactly how Thorstein Veblen used this term.    From Wordnik.com.  [Douglass North at Length, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty] Reference

So the researchers went back to Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term conspicuous consumption.    From Wordnik.com.  [Inconspicuous Consumption] Reference

Nor does Thorstein Veblen's model — in which consumers are involved in a status race to keep up with the Joneses.    From Wordnik.com.  [Light Shows of the Mind] Reference

Thorstein Veblen coined the term conspicuous consumption; he “argued that people spent lavishly on visible goods to prove that they were prosperous”.    From Wordnik.com.  [Inconspicuous Consumption « Isegoria] Reference

The Theory of the Leisure Class, by Thorstein Veblen, Penguin (1994).    From Wordnik.com.  [A PRIMER ON UNLEARNING CLASSISM] Reference

See Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (New York and London: Macmillan, 1899) 363-400. close window.    From Wordnik.com.  [Notes, "Is Literary History the History of Everything? The Case for 'Antiquarian' History", Romanticism and Contemporary Culture] Reference

Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899; reprint, New York, 2001). back.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe] Reference

Gosh darn it, where’s Thornstein Veblen when you need him?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Oil Import Tariff?, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty] Reference

Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class - the one other non-Freakonomics economics book that I truly enjoyed.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Freakonomics Q&A: Part One - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com] Reference

W/love, Thorstein Veblen.    From Wordnik.com.  [Matthew Yglesias » With Inflation Low and Unemployment High, Bernanke Prioritizes Fighting Inflation Over Fighting Unemployment] Reference

Thorstein Veblen here, grad student economist ….    From Wordnik.com.  [Matthew Yglesias » With Inflation Low and Unemployment High, Bernanke Prioritizes Fighting Inflation Over Fighting Unemployment] Reference

1990s, just as Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class addressed the elites of the 1890s.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Kinder, Gentler Overclass] Reference

I have not closed selections to critics of Veblen.    From Wordnik.com.  [Thorstein Veblen on The Web] Reference

And Knight quotes Veblen many times in his writings.    From Wordnik.com.  [Who Is Afraid of Ayn Rand? - The Austrian Economists] Reference

CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION by Thorstein Veblen 1857 to 1929.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ecstatic Days » 2010 » January] Reference

See also my article on Veblen the Revolutionist, International.    From Wordnik.com.  [Socialism: Positive and Negative] Reference

COOPER: And our viewer winner is Ryan from Veblen, South Carolina.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Feb 6, 2009] Reference

Of course Veblen was a genius, Mencken just an entertaining writer.    From Wordnik.com.  [Why Oh Why Can't Hayek Write Better?, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty] Reference

The first stop he made was at Columbia, Missouri, to see his idol Veblen.    From Wordnik.com.  [An American Idyll The Life of Carleton H. Parker] Reference

Mills's indebtedness to Veblen is genuine, but it is not much in evidence here.    From Wordnik.com.  [C. Wright Mills and the Pragmatists] Reference

I also include Smith, Keynes and Veblen, and to a lesser extent Ricardo, Mills.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Volokh Conspiracy » Does Hayek Belong in High School Economics Classes?] Reference

Veblen (97) says that patriotism is the only obstacle to peace among the nations.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Psychology of Nations A Contribution to the Philosophy of History] Reference

Veblen, and others, emphasized conspicuous expenditure and conspicuous leisure as aims.    From Wordnik.com.  [Energy and Society~ Chapter 10~ Adaptations to New Technology] Reference

Veblen wrote about their spending habits and coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Doug Dowd's "At the Cliff's Edge" - Part II] Reference

While Veblen was there, the University of Chicago actually knew something about economics.    From Wordnik.com.  [Boing Boing] Reference

Veblen was convinced that patriotic fervor and sports fandom were one and the same sentiment.    From Wordnik.com.  [Soccerbleu! The Curse Of Sports Patriots] Reference

Each u (k) can be computed in terms of the so-called Veblen hierarchy: u (k+1) is φu (k) (0).    From Wordnik.com.  [Type Theory] Reference

Noteworthy exceptions are the remarkable series of books by Veblen, the articles and criticisms of.    From Wordnik.com.  [An American Idyll The Life of Carleton H. Parker] Reference

Veblen pointed this out in a different direction with his observation on "conspicuous consumption.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Let's take a closer look at Ron Paul.] Reference

When Noether found refuge at Bryn Mawr, she and Veblen arranged a fellowship for Olga during 1934 and 1935.    From Wordnik.com.  [Olga Taussky-Todd.] Reference

Several writers, Powers (75), and especially Veblen, place questions of national honor among the main causes of war.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Psychology of Nations A Contribution to the Philosophy of History] Reference

Expressions such as 'conspicuous consumption' and 'pecuniary emulation' were coined by Veblen, and have become common currency.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sister Carrie and the Leisure Class] Reference

The higher patriotic feeling runs, says Veblen (97), the thinner may be the moral sanction that satisfies the public conscience.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Psychology of Nations A Contribution to the Philosophy of History] Reference

The forest ecosystems from north to south were based primarily on a classification proposed by Gajardo and the scheme of Veblen.    From Wordnik.com.  [Valdivian temperate forests] Reference

Veblen says it is a matter of habit to what particular nationality a man will become attached on arriving at years of discretion.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Psychology of Nations A Contribution to the Philosophy of History] Reference

Veblen everywhere detected distinct class structures, and he believed that people spent ostentatiously to show where they ranked.    From Wordnik.com.  [From On High] Reference

The winner-take-all nature of athletic contests, Veblen further argued, deformed national conflicts, making them ruthless and gruesome.    From Wordnik.com.  [Soccerbleu! The Curse Of Sports Patriots] Reference

Writing in the much poorer world of 1899, Veblen argued that people spent lavishly on visible goods to prove that they were prosperous.    From Wordnik.com.  [Inconspicuous Consumption] Reference

Veblen claimed he wrote the book as a perceptive personal essay criticizing contemporary culture, rather than as an economics textbook.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2009-03-01] Reference