Price-Controls in Jewish Law

Makovi, Michael (2016): Price-Controls in Jewish Law.

Abstract

Previous scholarship has explored whether the halakhah (Jewish law) of ona'ah (fraud) constitutes a price-control. However, less attention has been paid to the similar law of hayyei nefesh (essential foodstuffs) – also known as hafka'at she'arim (profiteering). Nor has criticism been directed towards arbitrary price-controls imposed by the corporate, democratic Jewish community. This essay argues that while ona'ah is not a price-control, hayyei nefesh / hafka'at she'arim is one. Economic theory demonstrates that like all price-controls, hayyei nefesh / hafka'at she'arim and corporate communal price-controls are both self-defeating because the means conflict with the ends sought. The conflict between religion and science is therefore not limited to cosmology and biology, but may include economics as well.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: price controls; price fixing; just price; jewish business ethics; religious economics
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A12 - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B1 - History of Economic Thought through 1925 > B11 - Preclassical (Ancient, Medieval, Mercantilist, Physiocratic); D - Microeconomics > D0 - General > D00 - General; K - Law and Economics > K2 - Regulation and Business Law > K20 - General; P - Economic Systems > P0 - General > P00 - General; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z12 - Religion

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