THE NEW AND IMPROVED CONSUMER BEHAVIOR THEORY: A COMMENT

In a recent article in this journal, Meadows claimed to have developed a “new and improved consumer behavior theory” which “eliminates the principal defect uncovered by Pollak and Wachter”, namely the defect of joint production. The purpose of this comment is to show that firstly, Meadows' concept of “joint production” is entirely different from that defined by Pollak and Wachter and understood by most other economists, and secondly, the “new and improved” method of Meadows is similar to an approach taken by DeDonnea which takes into account both household technology (as represented by production functions) and tastes (direct utilities) as relevant factors determining the household preference function, but which is still primarily a single production approach.