We explore the link between affluence and well-being using a simple general equilibrium model with a pure Veblen good. Individuals derive utility from the pure Veblen good based solely on how much they consume relative to others. In equilibrium, consumption of the pure Veblen good is the same...

In their efforts to create a position in a market, and to maintain that position, firms make positioning investments of various sorts, in R&D, plant, advertising, and location, or more generally, in product development and maintenance. The heart of this paper is the hypothesis that the success...

Ordinarily people do not make special purpose trips to acquire goods like gasoline or groceries, but instead buy them as the need arises in the course of their daily lives. Such goods are commonly called convenience goods. We modify Hotelling's model of spatial competition so that we can analyze...

In their efforts to create a position in a market, and to maintain that position, firms make positioning investments of various sorts, in R&D, plant, advertising, and location, or more generally, in product development and maintenance. The heart of this paper is the hypothesis that the success...

We humans engage in a lot of costuming that can often be interpreted as type communication. Uniforms are the obvious example (cops on the beat, for example, wear uniforms because they want us to know that they are cops), but there are many other examples. This paper models costuming, or image...

We investigate the origins of identity and the innate proclivity to draw a distinction between "insiders" and "outsiders".We propose an evolutionary explanation: we argue that identity arises because it facilitates survival. In an evolutionary setting we endogenize preferences and demonstrate...

When agents make their choices simultaneously, network effects often give rise to a selection problem involving perfectly coordinated, Pareto-optimal equilibria. We characterize this selection problem, and introduce a generalized sequential choice model to address it. In this model, we show how...