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 (original) (raw)

The paper 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. The paper 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. The paper 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. The paper brings more detail in the conceptual and theoretical discussion of Veblen’s influence on Kyrk’s book.