Some goods sell better the more expensive they get

Normal demand curves fall as price rises, but for certain luxury goods — designer handbags, rare watches — a higher price can make them more desirable, because the price itself signals status. Thorstein Veblen described this 'conspicuous consumption' in 1899; economist Harvey Leibenstein formalised the effect and gave it Veblen's name in 1950.

— Harvey Leibenstein, building on Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Bandwagon, Snob, and Veblen Effects in the Theory of Consumers' Demand — Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1950

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