TY  - JOUR
AU  - Carlton,Dennis W.
AU  - Weiss,Avi
TI  - The Economics of Religion, Jewish Survival and Jewish Attitudes Toward Competition in Torah Education
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7863
PY  - 2000
Y2  - August 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7863
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7863.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Dennis W. Carlton
Booth School of Business
University of Chicago
5807 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 847/217-6000
Fax: 312/322-0262
E-Mail: dennis.carlton@chicagobooth.edu
AB  - This paper examines the attitude of Jewish law to competition in light of the economist's understanding of the benefits of competition and of the beneficiaries from intervention in the competitive process. The punchline of this paper is simple. Although Judaism has used a whole host of restrictions on competition and has had its share of legislation to promote private interests, there has been one area that has generally been a consistent exception to impediments to competition -- the teaching of Torah.  This exception is all the more remarkable because those who were in a position to influence the legislation often stood to benefit from such restrictions.  From this stress on teaching, we show that the foundation was laid for the survival and perpetuation of Judaism.
ER  -