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The Relationship Between Competition and Trust: An Essay in an Historical and Theoretical Perspective

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Abstract

Competition is generally claimed to be good for social welfare, even though this claim is rarely coupled with a plain account of the circumstances under which it is actually true. Both the original connotation of the verb ‘to compete’ and the non-technical common use of the word, are grounded on the intuition that competition is a race (Blaug 2001). The view that the by-product of such a race is good beyond any reasonable doubt, is not questioned even in presence of those situations in which an impoverishment of the quality of the good supplied is observed as an effect of the race itself (e.g. Alsberg 1931).

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© 2011 Sergio Beraldo and Gilberto Turati

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Beraldo, S., Turati, G. (2011). The Relationship Between Competition and Trust: An Essay in an Historical and Theoretical Perspective. In: Sacconi, L., Antoni, G.D. (eds) Social Capital, Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Behaviour and Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230306189_5

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