Veblen's Discounted Expected Earnings Streams: Monopoly and Make-Believe

Craig Allan Medlen

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2017, vol. 24, issue 1, 119-142

Abstract: The paper has two purposes. The first is to explore Thorstein Veblen's contention that the theory of discounted earnings streams is inexorably linked to monopoly power. This contention has contemporary relevance. Modern price theory follows Irving Fisher's original claim that discounted streams has universal application and is consequently divorced from any explicit reference to industrial structure. The second purpose is to examine Veblen's anthropological claim that the transformation of discounted “make-believe” streams into present values reinforces a spiritual aura surrounding financial elites and their social standing.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2016.1159241

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