If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

Luxury cars are often given as examples of Veblen goods due to their price, which generates a certain amount of status – the owner enjoying their ostentatious consumption. A report in the Times bears this out very neatly. Yesterday Porsche released sales figures for 2008 – the Porsche Boxster is clearly a ‘normal’ good at the cheaper end of their range (as little as £30,000), and its sales have followed the pattern of most of the automotive industry and collapsed from 9,835 to 3, 950 (a 60% fall) whilst the 911, which the Times report calls a ‘real Porsche’ and costs up to £90,000, fell only 17% from 16,261 to 13,543.

Moving up the scale, Ferrari sold 6,587 cars, only 2% fewer in 2008 than in 2007, and Rolls Royce sold 1,200 cars worldwide, a 20% increase. The commentary in this article suggests that as an ‘aspirant’ car, the Boxster is for those on the way up with volatile incomes, while the Ferrari or Rolls is for those who have already arrived (and Premier League footballers), and are happy to let other road users know that.

BMW - Bavarian Monopolist at Work [24 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on Elasticity of Supply [16 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on the Price Mechanism [16 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Price Elasticity of Supply [13 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Income Elasticity of Demand [13 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Price Elasticity of Demand [13 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Blogs on Markets and Intervention [10 May 2012]
Made in China - but not quite so cheaply…... [7 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Monetary Policy and Inflation Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Revision on Monopoly Price and Output [6 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Surplus [4 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Maximum Rents in Housing [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Brazilian coffee buffer stock hit by falling prices [29 Mar 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: EU Imposes Further Price Cap on Mobile Phone Companies [29 Mar 2012]
Life in the Slow Lane - UK Growth in 2011 Lags the Euro Area [28 Mar 2012]
Price of Stamp increases to 60p [27 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Government launches New Buy Loan Guarantee Scheme [12 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - World’s Cheapest Computer [26 Jan 2012]
Beyond the Bike - What is the value of life in Africa? [19 Nov 2011]
Pasty Prices - Something to Chew Over [19 Nov 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Luxury Goods in Action! [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Time of Use Pricing for Energy [2 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Economies of Scale and the Kinect [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Google Maps to Charge for Usage [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Price Discrimination in the E-Book Market [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Is the Sun Dipping on Solar Subsidies? [27 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: University fees and elasticity of demand [24 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economists attack food price speculation [24 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tesco Behaving Badly - Price Anchoring [17 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Homework Assignment on Market Prices [2 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Supply and Demand Rap! [28 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Equilibrium Market Prices [27 Sep 2011]
Putting the “discrimination” into price discrimination! [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Demand [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Value Added in Production and GDP [11 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Baltic Dry Index and Global Weakening [19 Aug 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Price of Football [2 Aug 2011]
A2 Micro: Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Monopsony Power in Markets [19 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Perfect Competition [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Minimum Efficient Scale [18 May 2011]
AS Micro: What´s really behind the oil price rise? [10 May 2011]
AS Micro: Rising Global Food Prices [2 May 2011]
AS Micro Revision: Public and Private Goods [21 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Costs and Profits [16 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Prices [15 Apr 2011]
Information Failures: Tesco and Second Hand Cars [3 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Relative deflation [2 Apr 2011]
AS Micro Revision: Banana Prices [1 Apr 2011]
OCR F585 June 2011: Data Charts [30 Mar 2011]
Keeping Track of UK Macro Objectives [18 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Mortgage Lending and Mortgage Rates [14 Mar 2011]
AS Macro Revision: Investment Spending [12 Mar 2011]
Information Failure: The UK Illicit Drug Market [28 Feb 2011]
The World’s Largest Yachts [17 Feb 2011]
Ways to watch movies - cross elasticity of demand in action! [3 Feb 2011]
EU Economics: Hopes for a low carbon future in Europe [3 Feb 2011]
Shorting the market - the vultures target HMV [23 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: How might rising food prices affect food retailers and manufacturers in the UK? [16 Jan 2011]
A Motorbiking Triumph [13 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of a period of rising world food prices [4 Jan 2011]
Behavioural Economics - Public Policy and Behavioural Change [30 Dec 2010]
HMV on the brink? [9 Dec 2010]
OCR A2 Economics F585 (Feb 2011) - Price Volatility [8 Dec 2010]
Orange, iPads and the Lock In effect [29 Nov 2010]
Growth and Strategy at Domino’s Pizza [27 Nov 2010]
Energy Oligopoly - Price Investigation is Launched [26 Nov 2010]
Agflation - a new food price crisis in 2011? [18 Nov 2010]
Watch out for the £7 chocolate bar! [9 Nov 2010]
The Market for Potash [30 Oct 2010]
Economics at the Movies - Austin Powers and Inflation [23 Oct 2010]
Economics at the Movies - Hudsucker Proxy and Consumer Demand [21 Oct 2010]
Economics at the Movies - Billy Ray Valentine learns commodities [20 Oct 2010]
Economics at the Movies - Pretty Woman, Consumer and Producer Surplus [19 Oct 2010]
Picturenomics (1) - Congestion and Externalities [18 Oct 2010]
Lifting the cap on tuition fees - a question of price elasticity? [10 Oct 2010]
From heart transplants to watermelons - elasticity of demand [5 Oct 2010]
Damien Hirst - Artist and Economist ? [30 Sep 2010]
Searching for the right price for water [30 Aug 2010]
Potash - a battle for grey dust that has become gold dust [26 Aug 2010]
Lesson Worksheet - Cross Price Elasticity of Demand [21 Aug 2010]
Lesson Worksheet - Price Elasticity of Demand [13 Aug 2010]
Cocoa Economics [30 Jul 2010]
AS Macro: Macroeconomic Performance [5 Jun 2010]
AS Macro Revision: Cost Push Inflation [31 May 2010]
Sugar price volatility - uncertainty for producers and consumers [29 May 2010]
Sterling and Exports - The Importance of Time Lags [29 May 2010]
Economics of the EU Revision - Carbon Taxes [26 May 2010]
Is the UK coal industry turning a corner? [24 May 2010]
Profit margins for ticket touts [23 May 2010]
Unit 3 Micro: Efficiency and Price Intervention in Markets [21 May 2010]
Alcohol pricing - an end to loss leaders? [21 May 2010]
Kaletsky on the Phillips Curve [7 Apr 2010]
End of the Road for the Car Scrappage Scheme [31 Mar 2010]
OFT report finds welfare gains from liberalising pharmacies [23 Mar 2010]
Mobile roaming charges and information failure [22 Mar 2010]
Price discrimination - Tesco and One Stop [22 Mar 2010]
Free health care and government failure [21 Mar 2010]

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