Journal of Institutional Economics

Table of Contents - 2006 - Volume 2, Issue 03  


Galbraith and the Management of Specific Demand: evidence from the tobacco industry

STACEY J. ANDERSON a1c1 and STEPHEN P. DUNN a2
a1 University of California, San Francisco
a2 Department of Health, London

Article author query
anderson sj   [Google Scholar] 
dunn sp   [Google Scholar] 
 

Abstract

In The New Industrial State John Kenneth Galbraith famously argued large corporations would seek to manage the demand for their products. Although attracting a degree of attention and notoriety around the time of publication, Galbraith's thesis of the direct manipulation of the consumer has slipped somewhat from view in favor of a view of advertising as information provision. We reconsider Galbraith's theory of the Management of Specific Demand and illuminate its salience in the context of the US tobacco industry. We conclude that the US experience is congruent with many of the claims that Galbraith made regarding the manipulation of the consumer by large corporations and thus warrants rehabilitation of the Galbraithian view.

(Published Online October 13 2006)


Correspondence:
c1 Correspondence to: Stacey J. Anderson, Email: stacey.anderson@ucsf.edu