Abstract
Competition is the most basic force traditionally regarded by Western economists as governing both society's resources allocation and income distribution. No wonder, then, that many legal systems have been concerned with various aspects of competitive activity, and formulated laws and rulings to keep market behavior within limits of ethical conduct. Jewish law has not been an exception.
The focus of this paper is on competition in consumption. Its underlying assumption is that lawmakers' decisions approximate optimality in resource allocation. The validity of the ‘optimality’ assumption is assessed in light of the special moral features unique to Jewish law.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Levine, Aaron: 1980,Free Enterprise and Jewish Law, (Ktav Publishing House, Yeshiva University Press, New York).
Liebermann, Yehoshua: 1982, ‘On the Economic Meaning of Price Competition in Jewish Law’,Economic Quarterly 291–306 (Hebrew).
Liebermann, Yehoshua: 1982, ‘The Economic Meaning of Competition by Entry in Jewish Law’,Jewish Law Annual 9–10, 237–264. (Hebrew).
Posner, Richard: 1972,Economic Analysis of the Law Boston, Mass.
Viner, Jacob 1952, ‘Cost Curves and Supply Curves’, (reprinted) in AEA:Readings in Price Theory (R. D. Irwin, Homewood, IL).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Yehoshua Lieberman is Senior Lecturer in Business and Economics at the Department of Economics and Business Administration of Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Previously he was Visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Marketing of the University of Washington at Seattle. His most important publications areElements of Talmudic Monetary Thought andThe Coase Theorem in Jewish Law.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liebermann, Y. Competition in consumption as viewed by Jewish law. J Bus Ethics 4, 385–393 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02388592
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02388592