Sumptuary Legislation: Demarketing by Edict

Abstract

Sumptuary legislation, or governmental control over consumption, is better known to historians of the Middle Ages than to modern marketing scholars. Yet, such legislation (and related semi-formal codes) exists in varying degree and in many guises in all countries today and the potentialities for increase also warrant attention. The legislation is considered here in terms of enforceability and of price, distributional, and allocative effects.